Pokémon Mystery Dungeon - Obscure Encounters
by TorchicBellow
Summary: A Shinx with neither memories of himself, nor of what he was supposed to be, wakes up in a world quickly deteriorating into chaos. A force too great for anyone's understanding looms over it, all the while spatial anomalies spread across the land like a plague, and an increasing number of Pokémon are becoming affected by strange genetic mutations. Cover pic made by TheLastRanger.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello there. This is the third and final rewrite of this story. It's gonna be all or nothing now. The previous two attempts were deleted, as I didn't want this one story to be three seperate sections on my profile. For anyone that happens to stumble upon this the first time, welcome. For anyone who has already read this, don't worry. The beginning is going to play out differently (for the most part). Enjoy.**

"Hello? Hey, can you hear me?"

Sounds. Words.

These were the first things his body had picked up for an undefined amount of time. In his mind, he was floating through an empty void, since the beginning of time. _Alive or dead_, he was thinking, _what could he have been right now_? Alive and mostly well for the mysterious voice that had formed next to his unmoving body—it had noticed he was still breathing and kicking, which made it think he was initially dreaming—but he himself eventually thought he was dead, that this was his punishment of some sort. The surrounding blackness was enough evidence already, and the fact that he wasn't feeling himself breathing made it ever so prominent.

But yet, his body was indeed breathing, underneath the shade of an oak tree. An entity noticed his sleeping, unconscious body, surrounded by a ring of ashes from patches of grass. It looked as if the body had created those burn marks; he had made a trail, coming from seemingly nowhere.

"Oh my Arceus, what happened here?!"

The voice had made its way from the neatly built gravel path leading into the distance to next to the tree. It inspected the nearby area for any other anomalies, but couldn't find any. So, with a worried sigh, it spoke again.

"Hello? Hey, can you hear me?" It shook his perfectly healthy looking body with its one clawed leg. It found no cuts, no bruises, no burn marks, not anything resembling a fight or strain on him.

What on earth happened here?

The voice checked the tree for any damage: the bark, the leaves, and the Starly singing in them were unharmed. Then where did this body come from…?

"Hey, can you hear me?" It shook him again, asking the same question in hopes of getting an answer out of him this time.

His black furred legs were twitching, but only for a short time. So were his light blue front legs. Moving ever so slightly… was he waking up?

"Hello?" It asked again, now looking through her leather bag strapped on its neck. Rummaging through its items, it didn't find anything useful to help him wake up. But as it turned out, it hadn't needed an item in the first place—the black-blue body was now squirming and groaning.

"Hey," it gasped, "hey, come on, wake up!"

His body protested in getting back to consciousness, the void was trembling, cracks started to show up left and right, up and down, filling the seemingly endless blackness with a brilliant light. His senses started coming back one by one—first was hearing; he heard the voice speaking to him, the tree rustling in the fine breeze, the singing of birds, the whooshing of the grass around him.

Second was feeling. He felt his body laying on the ground, the wind howling all around his body, he felt more hairy for some reason. As if his whole body had grown fur overnight. He was freezing, shivering. The warmth of the sun shining onto him gave him a sense of comfort.

Third was seeing. This one was difficult for him at first. He attempted to open his eyes, but felt an immediate stinging coming from them, which resulted in him tearing up. They still were adjusted to the darkness that surrounded him. He could barely move his arm to wipe the tears from his eyes, he placed them on top instead of rubbing them. His body right now was in no condition of standing up. The voice called to him again and this time lightly tapped his chest.

"Hey, can you hear me? Please, wake up..." The voice turned out to be a female.

Only a low 'murrr' came out of his mouth. No amount of poking him would make him open his eyes, much less stand up. She tip-tapped around the blue lynx, unsure of what she should do.

Rummaging through her little bag, she looked at a map. "Ok, if that took… hmhm. I should arrive… ah!" She folded the sheet of paper and put it back. "Well. If you don't wanna walk, I'll have to carry you there."

She summoned two vines that carefully wrapped around the black-blue body, then put it onto her back. The tail was brushing the ground, as she noticed, but the furry body didn't seem to care that much. Maybe it didn't feel it. She kept him secured with them, as she had agreed to herself that she would make a little haste. Maybe there was something wrong with him, not visible to the naked eye?

Once more her attention turned to the scorched grass that was surrounding this body. It didn't feel like she was burning her back off, so that was out of the question. The fur was cold to the touch.

On her way, she kept thinking and theorizing about the strange find. How did he get there? When had he arrived underneath that tree? Why was he unconscious? Questions after questions that couldn't be answered shot through her head. What was the reason he was there? Was there even a reason?

Who was he? She had never seen him before. Not in her village, not in any other. "Are Shinx supposed to be in this part of the continent? Weren't they more southern…? What's that doing here, then?"

The body moved slightly with every step she took, yet still not a single response came out of it.

Meanwhile, the electric type was terrified. Scared for his life. He managed to open his eyes a tiny bit. They started tearing up from all the burning, so it made it even harder to resist closing them again. Who took him? Who was kidnapping him? Where was he?

What was he?

He felt… different. Like he was in a different body. In a different world. Yet, it felt all so strangely… familiar, as if all of this had happened once before. He felt like he could throw up.

His body registered that two rope-like things were holding him together with something… scaly? He tried to move, but found out the things pressing harder on him. What were those? These couldn't be ropes; they were too soft.

Finally, one of his arms managed to wipe the tears from his eyes. They also slowly accommodated to the sunlight, after blinking a couple times, so he could fully open them for the first time since forever. What greeted him was something he didn't expect to see.

Stones. A gravel path. He felt like he was floating, but at the same time tied around something moving. He attempted turning his head to the right, but couldn't. He could barely keep his eyes open. Why was he so weak? Why couldn't he move his own head?

"Let's see what she's gonna say about this..." The voice came from his left. Was she talking about him?

She moved abnormally fast, he thought, with him on her back. How would he be able to escape if he wasn't able to turn his own head to the side…? He felt hopeless, useless.

He noticed something peculiar while trying to find any muscle he could move. His arms… his hands… they...

As he was still looking down at the path, his 'hands' came into view. The lack thereof, to be more precise. What he expected to see was five fingers, not none. They looked like blue paws… with a yellow wristband that didn't exist. He… he had paws? He had paws. He blinked once, twice, thrice, to be absolutely, positively sure this wasn't his imagination. Yes, there was no mistaking it. He had paws.

_Paws- I- wh- wh- ...fhh-_

He still couldn't believe his own brain for seeing them. Did she give him something so that he would hallucinate and stay calm, while she could do unimaginable things to him? Did she do this to him? She-

She… she was green? She… had four legs.

_No! No! I'm hallucinating!_ He had told that to himself a thousand times since his arms got replaced by furry legs. _This is crazy!_ His mouth was silent. He couldn't scream. He couldn't shout. He couldn't cry for help. Why was all of this happening?

"Oh- wait. What?" She suddenly stopped, sounding surprised. "Did I take a wrong… no…"

Both of the things that were holding him let go, and he heard her going through a… leather backpack? Now was his chance— get as far away as possible from this psycho kidnapper.

To somehow escape, how would he do that, with his everything protesting to move? He couldn't.

"No… no, I'm on the right track, but why is there…?" She muttered again, and then grumbled. "I can't go through that with this… let alone walk around."

The annoyed green creature let out a sigh and picked up the Shinx with her vines. She made sure to be very careful with him. "Now would be a good time for you to wake up. Hey!"

He was slowly but surely coming back to his senses. Now that he could actually see what was going on, he saw a relieved, green, plant dinosaur looking creature smiling at him, as she was walking toward his belly side.

"Hey, you're finally awake." She spoke in a calm tone. "Can you tell me what happened to you? I found you unconscious underneath a tree just now. Are you alright?"

Her noises made sense to him. Either he could understand the growling and hissing this creature had made just now, or she spoke perfect English. Whether option it was, he was equally freaked out.

At least he could feel his legs. All four of them.

...Four. Four legs. Just as the creature before him.

"Hey, heyheyhey, calm down," she responded to the Shinx starting to hyperventilate, "I'm not gonna hurt you."

'_What the fuck is going on?_' The thought went through the Shinx's head like the blood flowing through his body. He managed to lift his head and was able to look around. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Not near his home, that was for certain. A lot, almost everything he saw was flora and fauna growing everywhere. The yellow and red flowers stretching into the horizon, with what looked like more alien creatures frolicking around them. Birds, weasels, mice, gigantic butterflies, that's what some of those looked like, but at the same time he knew that they weren't.

An alien planet. He'd woken up on a different planet.

No. This was a dream. It had to be.

No. This was _real_. It couldn't be just a dream.

His gaze landed on the leaf lizard, a mixture between horror and confusion.

"What are you…?" He managed to say.

"...Wha-?" That question threw her back. She wasn't expecting that, and was now as confused as him. "I'm... a Chikor-"

"What am I?!"

"H-hey, hey. Calm down…" She tried to get closer to the awoken Shinx, but he struggled backing up, as if she was some mutant trying to kill him.

"Stay away from me!" He was panicking, didn't know what was happening. Unbeknownst to him, his tail is tucked away under his body.

"Alright, alright..." She took a step back and spoke as calm and relaxed as she possibly could. "Now please. Calm down. Everything's gonna be alright."

"As if anything's alright!" Panic took on screaming. "What happened to me?!"

The Chikorita didn't know what to answer. "What- what do you mean? You look perfectly normal..."

"N**ormal**?!" His voice cracked. "Does this look normal to you?!"

A blue paw entered his vision. It looked almost exactly like a cat's. He moved and turned it, unsheathed their claws from their respective slit and back. "What… what… wh-..." His mouth kept repeating the same word over and over again, with whimpers inbetween them.

_He has clearly lost it… just what is wrong with him? He won't tell me what happened, but instead asks me that..._

"What is happening… Why… what…

"_how…?_"

He was starting to lose it, slowly falling into unconsciousness again. It was too much. He couldn't take it anymore.

"Hey, hey hey hey. Stay with me!" Ignoring his previous request, she ran towards him and shook his body again. "Stay awake! Please!"

Blinked once, twice, with half open eyes he stared at a random speck in the distance. It was green, too, but he didn't care what exactly it was. His paw plummeted onto the ground with a quiet 'thud'.

"Am I, am I dead? Hello? What?" Babbling as if he was drunk. At least he didn't fall unconscious again.

"No, no, you're alive. You're alive." She was seriously worried about him, despite the unusual reaction from him.

He grumbled a couple unintelligible words. Slowly but surely, he came back to his senses yet again and his eyes moved to the green lizard lightly gasping just in front of him, as if she got scared from behind.

"You…" He spoke very slowly and drew a breath after every question. "What are you? What am I? What is all this…?" Vision moving back and forth from the landscape, the creature and his own body, and ending at a random speck on the grass.

"Are… are you alright now? I don't know what you want me to answer... You're a Shinx, I'm a Chikorita, and…" she seemed to think for a moment.

"A what? _Shenx_? _Chikeeta_? What- what even is that?" He got more confused by every passing second. Those names didn't exist. Those words didn't exist.

"Uhm," _is he joking? No, his reaction and question were genuine. Too genuine..._ "you know, you and me. We are both Pokemon..." She laughed awkwardly. _I'm sure he doesn't know what that is, either._

"What are you talking about? What is that?" He noticed how his hind legs felt out of place. They just… were weird to look at. They felt alien. They looked crooked, broken.

"Alright, um, ok." _Knew it. Start it simple._ "Just… just start with telling me your name. I'm Kori."

He started thinking really hard. His name, that was simple enough. Surely, he would remember his own name he had since the beginning of his life. How would he be able to forget his own name others called him as? It was such a trivial question. It certainly should've been the most one.

"I… I can't remember..." He said in a low whisper.

"You what?"

"I can't. Remember. My name…" he said this more to himself than to the Chikorita. "My name?"

Kori noticed that he was starting to panic again.

"Don't- don't worry. This happens sometimes." She lied. "Well, not sometimes, but, rarely. You know?"

"Uh, this has happened before?"

"Yyyeah. It has." Still lying, looking away from the Shinx for a short time. "Don't worry. It'll come back to you later, but, uh, I… I can explain some things to you if you want."

"That would be appreciated. For example what happened to me, and, you know... why I'm a fucking cat now."

_...What? _"Shinx. I can't really explain everything, but I'll try my best. You and I, we both are Pokemon. Every living creature you can see here," she pointed at the aliens jumping and running around them, "are Pokemon. We are creatures with elemental powers, like fire, or air. We call those 'types'. You see, I, for example," she pointed her own foot at her chest, "have the grass type. My species can also do something kind of unique." She summoned her two vines from her neck and flexed them around carelessly. "You may have not noticed it, but I used those to keep you secured." They retracted back into the pea looking things around her neck.

He cringed as the two appendages just seemingly sprouted out of nowhere, and even more so when they had retracted themselves again.

"You, on the other paw, have the electric type. Your species can summon and control electricity and sometimes even lightning. Don't worry about that, though. You won't discharge or anything. You're completely harmless to the touch. If that weren't the case, I would've had a big problem." She snickered.

"Also, you should have incredible eyesight. I'm speaking of 'seeing in pitch darkness' kind of incredible. When you ev- uh, 'grow older', you'll also be able to have some kind of x-ray vision. ...Don't ask how that's possible. It just is."

That was a lot of information for him to take in at once. Elemental powers? Types? Sprouting tentacles and controlling lightning? Built in x-ray vision? Did these creatures evolve just to give a middle finger to nature?

It took him a while of thoroughly inspecting her body—he noticed she had little pea sized growths around her neck, and that the 'vines' were coming out of those. Eventually, he managed to ask something he had meant to the moment she had retracted them again.

"Were- were those tentacles?!"

"What? No! No no no." She laughed and they reappeared. "Vines. Those are vines. Take a closer look if you want."

"Erm…" They were right in front of his face. It looked like they were made out of some kind of compressed plant matter. Grasshalms tied together by the thousands. He noticed they had miniature dents along them, perhaps to grab things a little easier. The fact that they looked similar to tendrils made them even more creepy.

"How does that even feel to you? When they come out."

"Oh, it's…" they slithered back into her. "It's not that weird. I barely feel it, even. Anyway…" she snapped back to reality, having remembered what she had wanted to ask the Shinx since she found him, "that's beside the point. What happened to you? I found you unconscious next to one of those trees here, and surrounding you was burned grass. Like, reduced to ashes burned."

She had what? _Found me surrounded by burned grass? How in the hell did that happen? I can't remember anything… would she believe me?_

"I…" He stuttered. He wasn't sure if he should even tell her this. What would she think? Would she even know what that was? The only way to find out is to just tell her outright. No need to overcomplicate it with 'uh's and 'umm's.

"I-I don't know. I don't know! I-I just don't know!" His face of horror was both visible and hearable. "I… I only know that I used to be a human." He braced for impact. Did she know what a human was?

"...You… what? A human? But… that's impossible."

"Impossible?" He repeated after her. So she knew? "What do you mean, 'impossible'?"

"By that I mean that humans are extinct. They used to roam the world several millennia ago, that much I know. But… you? A human? No."

Extinct? For several thousand years… They didn't seem to have left any major impact around here… though that might have been destroyed by nature a long time ago. Or those type creatures. He was one now. She was one, too.

He stared at her in disbelief yet again. He just couldn't understand what she had said right now. _How in the world am I here right now? Have I been asleep for that long? _

_How long _have _I'd been asleep for, anyway? How long was I laying there? When did I arrive here? What happened before I woke up?_

"You're quite the unique Pokemon, Shinx. You wake up here, without anything from your past, except that you were a human. That's… insane. Actually insane." She was laughing now. Not at him, but at herself for actually believing him. "I have to say, this has been the weirdest day of my life. By far. How in the world are you existing?"

_Does that mean… she's actually believing me? Thank god… I was really scared of what would've happened if she didn't._

"So," she continued, "if you're actually a human. What was their life like? I was always interested as to what happened to them. Their extinction shouldn't have happened, you know? It's a big mystery, because they had all this amazing technology! Like, uh… they had this… like," she was gesturing with her legs, but he couldn't find out what she meant by them. She was sitting, touching her toe with her other leg, and then holding it onto what he assumed was her ear? "You know? They could do all kinds of stuff with that! Literally everything! They could speak to other humans over this tool, and- and other things! Have you had one of those?" She was sincerely hoping his answer would be yes.

"...No." I bluntly answered and shook his head. "I don't remember."

Her hopeful smile turned into a depressing frown. "You… you don't?"

He shook his head again. "I'm sorry."

"Oh. Well then… I…" She looked past him in what felt like an hour had passed, looking at the thing that made her stop in the first place. _Oh no, I completely forgot! _She gave him a quick glance. "This might sound strange, and I'm sure the answer's no, but do you know any moves?"

_What's this now? _"You're right. I don't. Just tell me what they are."

"So, you know how some of us mons can control fire and stuff? Well, they do that using what we call 'moves'. Of course, you can just use them whenever you want, but they're most important in defending yourself. Let me show you an example." She looked around and chose the tree right behind her. "See this tree? Don't blink now."

"Ok…?" She waved her giant leaf around and back, and after five or six rounds, the leaf fired many tiny razor sharp leaves at the poor tree. They penetrated the bark but got stuck in the wood. He wasn't sure if it was just him or the light, but he could've sworn they were glowing a barely visible light green. A gray alien bird that had been chirping in it flew away.

He stared at them in shock. How could she have launched them at such high velocity that they could get stuck in wood? That just seemed terrifying.

"That was 'razor leaf'. The name implies what it does. They are many, _maaany_ more moves."

"Aaand… when do you have to defend yourself? Because everything looks peaceful around here…" The other creatures were minding their own business, and they seem to rather ignore the two than finding out what they were. Like they were scared of them.

"Yeah, I was getting to that. I'm just gonna assume you don't have anything. That's ok, too. You still have your claws. And your body, for tackling. So you're not completely useless."

"Gee, thanks. Hold on." He realized he was still laying down until now. With shaky legs, and a few unnecessary movements, he managed to stand up. His balance was much different, with those two extra legs behind him. For a second he thought he would fall on his face, but that disappeared as quick as it came. And…

A tail was hanging low enough that it was touching the ground. His tail. It was as pitch black furred as the rest of his lower body. The tip of it looked like a star. He managed to wag it back and forth a little, slightly cringing at the new limb he now had.

"Look at you go. Can you walk?"

"I, I can try." He was unsure on how to start: which one first? His first attempt involved putting his two front legs in front of him, but found himself with a stretched belly, so his hind legs shakily followed. All this resulted in him looking stupid.

Kori couldn't stop grinning at the sight of this odd fellow. "_That_... was not a bad attempt." In her mind, she couldn't stop laughing at this. "Let me show you… how to walk." _I can't believe I said that. Oh Mew, so help this poor Shinx over there._

"You do this," her left front and right hind leg started moving and stopped right behind the other ones, "and then this." She followed up with the rest of them doing the same. "And you just keep doing that, until you need to stop."

This looked simple enough for him. He quickly got accustomed to the rhythm of normal walking speed. He was able to jog, too. At least he thought it was their form of jogging.

"Ok, now that you know the basics of life, I can tell you why I asked you about moves."

"Very funny."

"You see this forest there?" Her claw pointed behind him at the trees.

"...Yes. What's-"

It looked strange. Very strange. Out of this world.

Purple fizzles of light shot through the air between the forest and the continuing gravel path. Their path, length, and velocity was completely random. No two lightning bolts were the same. They mesmerized the Shinx with their unique movements. He couldn't look away. They were so… beautiful. Breathtaking! They swirled and danced around, creating various shapes and figures, drawing him nearer. Were they getting longer? Faster? He wasn't sure, but they didn't plan on stopping. Shiny radiant pink lights now. Blinding brightness.

The Shinx screamed as something grabbed him around the torso.

"Stop looking at it! Can't you hear me?!" Kori shouted at him, leaving him in shock and confusion again. He had sounded very similar to a squeaky toy.

A flock of Pidgey flew off of a nearby tree, into the distance.

For a moment, there was silence.

"Wh- what? What? What happened?"

"I saved you, that's what happened! Didn't you hear me?"

"Heard… what? You didn't say anything." They still appeared in his vision as he blinked. Very blurry.

"You-"

"What are those things...?" He backed up even more, he was almost touching the tree behind Kori.

Kori took a deep breath, preparing for what she had to explain to him. "Those things, this thing, it's called a mystery dungeon."

"Mystery… dungeon?" The Shinx repeated after her.

"Yes. They are… very dangerous places. If you somehow enter one of them, you don't notice it until it's too late. This one, however, has some kind of… let's say quirk to it. Those fizzles right there are normally not there for other dungeons, unless they have something special to them. What that is, we'll find out when we enter it. We… kinda have to."

All that he could manage to say was a quick "huh?".

"Sure, we _could_ walk around it, but that would take at least two days. Maybe even more. You see, these dungeons, they are… how can I say it… uhm… they are defined as spatial anomalies. It would take a couple days to go around the forest, but if you go through it, and are quick, you can reach the other side before the sun sets. Bear with me now," she breathed in again, "they cramp up space and make it so you can get to another location faster than actually possible."

He made a sound that could be described as saying '?'.

"That's not all. Also-"

"Stop, stop right there for a second," he backed up and held a paw up for her to take a break from talking, "they are WHAT? They, as in this thing right behind me, can toy around with space? Like, actual spatial manipulation? _What the fuck…?_" This one was more of a whisper. "No, no. You're just making shit up now. No way on earth would this exist. Your species may have evolved to wield elemental powers, that's great and all, but this. This thing right here," he pointed with the same leg to the anomaly, "can bend space to its will. You cannot be serious about this. There is no way."

"Oh, it's real. You have a lot to learn about this world, then. This has been a thing for as long as I've been around. We have learned and accepted it."

"Well, if it can bend space to its will, what happens if it creates a black hole? What then?"

"It won't. It never will."

"How can you be so sure about that?"

"Because it doesn't do that out here, just when you enter it. Do you see anything strange when looking into the forest? Except for those fizzles."

He turned around, and saw… the path going forward without anything stopping it. It went a fair bit deep, but then cuts to black all of a sudden.

"Ok, fine. Well, how does it manipulate space, then? Can you tell me that?"

"They… do that so they can create mazes. A dungeon is kind of like a big maze with rooms and hallways. But the layout of those mazes changes every time someone new enters one. For example: you're in a room with two hallways to your left, and to your right. The right one leads you to the next area, the left one is a dead end. Skip forward to another one entering the same dungeon. Now you have a room with one hallway, and it's to your right. This time, the dead end is gone and the exit is over there.

"This makes it impossible to create maps for those dungeons. You'd just have to memorize where everything leads to and where it is every time you enter a new one. Most of the time they are straight forward, but sometimes… they can act like a real maze, and you can lose yourself in them."

"...Ok… I think I get it? But… I asked how, and not why. And why did you ask me about any moves I can use before that?"

"I was getting to that. The reason I asked you that is because you won't ever be alone in them."

_Euh, that sounds so creepy._ "You mean like, uh, ghosts?"

"No, not here. Most of the times they are populated with similar mons you see out here. Sentret and Furret, Starly, Butterfree, and whatnot."

"They, uh, ok?"

"And, if you ever see any feral mons in them, get prepared to fight. Because their only thoughts are to fight anyone stupid enough to enter their line of sight. So you'd have to be careful at every moment you're in there. Of course, if you are strong enough, you can just plow through no problem, but… neither you or me are."

"And why are they a thing again?"

"That's the problem," Kori answered, "they just kinda appeared some day. Out of nowhere. ...Now that I mention it… this one's not marked on my map. That's a little strange."

"Maybe they're old?" The Shinx theorized. "Or… they forgot to add this to the map?"

"I doubt that. Very much. I got this one a couple weeks ago. And if they don't have that on them… I'd have to report that as soon as possible. Anyway," she quickly added, "We should go."

"Huh? Wait, right now? I'm not ready..."

"Too bad. Come on. Also, we can check you up for any injuries when we arrive at Inisio. I doubt that everything's fine with you. Except your memory loss, of course. I don't know if they can help you with that."

"I feel perfectly fine…" he lied.

"Well, then we can go!"

"Hey, wait, no!"

She grabbed him yet again and went straight into the forest.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sudowoods S1**

The moment they touched those purple fizzles, the air dramatically shifted into one much thicker and humid. It seemed… artificial. It was the strangest feeling the Shinx had ever experienced; after the fact of being some kind of electrical lynx... creature… thing. Wind didn't exist in here and it was very quiet; he only heard their own footsteps on the grass and his increasing heartbeat. His body felt very strange all of a sudden. Was it the anxiety?

"Kori, I wasn't ready!" he said, terrified of the lack of noises in here. Her vines let go of him.

"Relax, I'm here. I'll escort you through."

"Can you _not_ do that anymore?!"

"What even do you mean…?"

The Shinx blinked. "You know exactly what I mean. The grabbing. Don't ever do that again." She had one of those dumb smiles on her face. "That's not funny!"

She raised a leg to indicate that he should calm down. "Ok, ok. Sorry. Goodness."

The Shinx turned around to look at the gravel pavement they had been next to for some time, only to stare at a wall of trees, blocking the entrance. He recoiled in surprise. These trees acted like a solid wall, phased together in themselves just to make sure that no one could leave through them and escape the dungeon prematurely. He also noticed something odd about the wall: it was the same tree copied and pasted right next to each other.

On it was a big green caterpillar with unusually big eyes and a red antennae on its forehead, splitting into two, making it a Y-shape. On the tip of its tail was something that looked like the tail end of a rattlesnake, but without the rattling. It tried to get up above, the leaves its top priority. He wanted to take a closer look at it, but the thing on its tail suggested that he should, under no circumstances, disturb this alien caterpillar. Who knew what it was capable of. Suddenly, it stopped. Why it did that was a mystery to him, but it very quickly solved itself once its black eyes locked onto the Shinx. It had noticed him.

Kori noticed too. _Hmm. Let's see if he can defend himself against this Caterpie. Should be easy enough._

He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. His distance didn't feel safe anymore for him, and he slowly took a step back. This turned out to be a bad idea, for it fired a white string directly at him, while his foot was off the ground. It scared him so much that he jumped with a shriek and fell onto his back, while the caterpillar jumped onto his belly. It didn't stop until his legs were glued together with its icky string. Its prey was now the webbed Shinx: helpless, defenseless, very tasty.

_Ouh, it hit his face._

His vision was impaired, but that didn't stop his hearing from picking up its hissing sounds. His legs felt as if they were bound together, so running away wasn't an option. _Oh god, is it going to eat me?!_

"Kori, please! Help me!" He was almost sobbing, but his panic made it a scream.

_Not yet… come on, you can do it, Shinx._

Its stubby legs wouldn't stop moving, making this all the more uncomfortable for him. He struggled to get it off of his torso, but the strings on his legs made them hard to move. They felt sticky and really disgusting to the touch, and string sticking on fur felt at least a million times worse than a spiderweb to the skin.

The Chikorita quietly sighed. _This is a lost cause._

But to his relief he had someone with him. She noticed the monster on top a little later than he would've wanted, but with one whip of her vine it let go of him. The Shinx tried to scurry back to her, scared for his dear life, but his legs couldn't manage to. She came up to him and removed the webs of string from his legs and face.

"Uurrgg, tthhaannkkss, Kkoorrii." He groaned after a deep breath of air. His words sounded dragged out like a piece of gum. Looking back and forth on himself, she had gotten rid of any kinds of strings, but he still felt like he had web sticking everywhere that slowed him down. The feeling just wouldn't go away.

"Yeah, no problem. Be more careful around those Caterpie next time, ok?"

He sighed. The caterpie was laying on the ground next to where it pinned him down. "...Oohh, I wwiillll bbee, ddoonn'tt wwoorrrryy." He answered after five seconds of silence between them. Open wounds decorated part of its skin. Disgustingly green blood was oozing out of them. He wanted to look away, but found out he couldn't move his head as fast as he wanted it to turn. After sluggishly closing his eyes, he attempted to remove this image from his brain. _Thaaat's something I don't want to see ever again._

"Oh, it slowed you down."

It took him another five seconds to look at Kori again. "Wwhhaatt?"

"Don't panic." He was still panicking, but not as much as before. "It'll subside after a short while."

"Hhooww aarree yyoouu mmoovviinngg ssoo ffaasstt?" A short break. "Hhuuhh?"

"Goodness, that hit you pretty good-"

"Wwhhaatt ddoo yyoouu mmean? Huh?"

"See, it's over."

The Shinx looked past her. _What… just happened?_

"Are you alright?" she asked. "I'm pretty sure it didn't actually attack you properly, but-"

"What the fuck just happened?"

_Again…_ She shook it off. "The caterpie attacked you with a string shot. That web can make you react and act slower than normally. When the string is around any part of your body, it releases a gas-like… substance that makes your heart pump slower. No, it's not life threatening. Yes, I promise. The only way of not getting slowed down is to not breathe in at any moment this web is touching your skin."

"Sure," he murmured. "Whatever. Not life threatening. Sure. Sure…"

The top of the forest wasn't much different than the walls. Its dense vegetation of branches and leaves left barely enough room for sunlight to go through, but it was enough to see where they were going. Interwoven was an understatement and a half: they phased through each other on more than one occasion. The branches seemed to grow infinitely long, sometimes going through some of the higher tree's trunks. On one of them was a big, green cocoon. _Whaaat the hell is that?!_

"Dungeons are pretty spooky, huh?" Kori was staring at the massive wall behind him, not a single bit of anxiety visible neither in her voice nor on her face. "The way it just throws you somewhere random without you noticing it. As if the laws of space are thrown together and mushed into a puddle of an unrecognizable mess."

He nodded in response. The aggressive giant caterpillar was more than enough for him to agree with her.

Their opening was very high and room-like, forming a square with two sides having an opening to go through; where there was a hole in the wall, the trees formed an arch to keep the sky blocked. Kori signaled that they should go, and he quickly followed her.

They went through the corridor with barely enough room to walk next to each other. The Shinx picked the option to walk behind her. The walls were still the same as in the room they had seemingly landed in.

"These halls," Kori explained while pointing around in the tight space, "are connected to more of those rooms, that's how you can travel between them. In those areas, there is a chance of something laying on the ground. Though it's completely random. There's no saying what you'll find in the next room."

It _looked_ empty.

On the other side of the room, however, inside of a thicker part of grass laid something strange. He had never seen it before. It looked like a berry, but not with the usual colors or size normal ones had. Its round form was acceptable, but the blue color of it indicated it wasn't ripe at all. It even had, from his distance barely visible, black dots on it. Where did it come from? Was it even something edible?

"Hey, Kori. Do you know what that is?" he asked, still looking at the object.

"Huh?" She turned to him. After scanning the room, she didn't find it. "What do you mean?"

"Over there." One of the tiny fingers of his paw pointed at the berry, the claw of the same part extending from inside. He stared at it subconsciously, trying to withdraw and extend it again. He didn't notice that he was dimming out everything around him.

"Really? I don't see anything." She was making her way to the spot he had indicated. Halfway there, she saw the item. "Ooh, there's an oran berry hidden in that patch of grass! Nice catch."

For him his paws were much more interesting right now—he hadn't noticed her coming back from the object. She poked him.

"Huh? What?" He looked up, put the paw back down again and turned to Kori.

She chuckled. "I got the berry you found." One of her vines had grabbed it, and she held the blue object in front of him.

He retreated his head a little from the sudden vine. "So... what is that?"

"It's an oran berry. It has the ability to make you recover much faster after a fight or training. Plus it tastes fantastic. Its skin is hard to crack, but once you manage to open it, the juiciness inside will do its work. It's without a doubt the most common and beloved berry for everyone," she said gleefully, before putting it in her small bag.

"Ah, interesting. Say, sorry for being curious, why do you have a bag with you?"

"Oh, this is just for storing stuff."

Silence followed. He was expecting her to continue, but nothing ever came. "And…?"

"And what?" She said, sounding like a genuine question. Normally he would've heard some sarcasm from her, but this time there was none. Didn't she want to talk about this?

"And you just have this with you because…"

"Because. If I find something, I can take it with me. That's what bags are for, dummy." She winked.

"Well," He rolled his eyes. "If you say so..." He secretly kept glancing at it.

They went through the only other hallway and took a sharp right turn, entering a room with a tree in the center of it. Not just any tree, but a tree full of fresh apples.

"Look at that!" Kori gasped.

"At what? The tree?"

"Duh, what else?"

He wasn't entirely sure why she was so excited about an apple tree… were they a rarity? He shouldn't complain, a snack sounded nice right about now. She grabbed a few with her vines. The fruits made a nice snapping sound as they got removed from the branch, the tree wobbling around for a short time.

"Hey, Shinx, you wanna have one?" She held the fruit near for him to see. "You know what this is, right?"

He nodded. "Of course I do, gladly."

She put the apple in front of him, and sat down next to him. It was perfectly red, as if it had been painted over. After saying his thanks, the Shinx laid down and ate it, while making sure it wouldn't roll away. The fruit had been secured between his front legs, above the ground. It made a satisfying 'crunch' as he bit down on it.

_Mhmm, so delicious…_

It felt strange for him to eat something like this, and even more so without hands. There was more than one occasion where he had wanted to grab the apple with one of his paws, but stopped himself before he could lift one up.

After they finished their snack, they looked around the room and didn't see another opening.

He stated the obvious. "Looks like we have to go back."

"No, really?" she jokingly replied as they turned around.

Before they could go back, however, something stood in their way. Due to mysterious reasons, a relatively small tree with a few yellow spots on its trunk and a small amount of leaves at the top, had popped into existence and was standing at the entrance of the only way out. On both its sides was a branch going upwards, which ended at two smaller branches on top. Not knowing the existence of said blockage, the Shinx nearly walked right into it. He instantly took a few steps back, realizing then that his reaction time had been improved significantly.

The 'tree' looked… very odd. It had no bark, its stem looked like it had been polished not too long ago… was it even made of wood?

While he was wondering where that tree came from and how they were supposed to go around it—this thing nearly blocked the entire passage with its thickness—Kori already had her vines out and ready, and a stern expression on her face.

"Careful, Shinx. That Sudowoodo surprised you good, didn't it?"

_Sudowoodo? Did she mean that tree? That's a strange name for a-_

Suddenly, the seemingly lifeless tree moved on its own. Its two fat branches snapped out of their petrified state and started to shift their position downward. The strangest part was that it seemed to just have grown a set of eyes, which were locked right onto the Shinx, with a long mouth underneath them. Its roots were replaced with a pair of legs that it pulled out of the ground.

He couldn't believe his eyes; for a second he was considering that he was hallucinating for real, but after another quick glance, one thing made itself clear in his small head.

_THAT THING IS __**ALIVE**__?!_

The Shinx hastily took another few steps back, staring at the menacing tree. The fact that this thing was towering over him with over four times his body height didn't help his current situation at all. Its intention was clear after it vocalized its feral battle cry.

The Shinx froze in shock; his muscles paralyzed and his fur standing on end. He managed to close his eyes and braced for the inevitable impact.

...But it never came.

Instead, a strong sound of a whip cracking went through the air, followed by a thud and short trickling.

And then… everything was quiet.

He slowly opened his eyes again, and was met with a different scene from what he had anticipated. The walking trunk lay next to the entrance, a lethal dent in its body. No sounds or movements came from it after the brute force of Kori's attack. One hit. Her weak looking vine just smashed against a rock and it exploded into a thousand little pieces.

Kori was retreating her vines back into her neck and looked at him disapprovingly. It told him exactly what she was thinking right now.

She saved his sorry ass. Again.

"I-I... uh..." he stuttered, and just now noticed he was holding his breath the whole time. He wasn't sure if he could find anything reasonable to say to her, but he tried anyway. "Listen, I-"

"No, you know what," she interrupted him, holding one of her legs up and shaking her head, the leaf swinging alongside her movement. He was fearing the worst, but was surprised yet again as she said, "Don't worry about it. You wouldn't have been able to do much against it anyway. Not without electric attacks, at least."

A quiet "Oh," came from him.

It appeared to him that the Sudowoodo was unconscious, or at least it hadn't moved since its unfaithful encounter. Interested, he examined the creature a bit closer, whilst still holding his safe distance to it. The first thing he noticed was the body of this thing, as he'd suspected, wasn't really made out of real wood. The small bushes at the tip of its two arm-like branches were much too flat to have any resemblance with leaves, either. The little brown pieces next to it didn't help him much to determine what exact element this creature was.

_Why did that small caterpillar only have a small bruise on it?_ He was sure she had hit it with the same amount of force...

_I'm confused. Is this creature a living tree or a walking stone disguised as one? Is it a 'Pekamon', too?_

Seeing Kori idling next to it, waiting for him to follow her, he eventually answered her offer.

"So… what did you mean by 'not been able to do much'?" he asked on their way back to the first room.

"Against the Sudowoodo? Oh, yeah. It's because grass type attacks are strong against stone types."

"Uhh… say that again?"

She repeated herself.

"So it was a… stone type?"

"Yes. It's called Sudowoodo. Sounds similar to 'pseudo wood'."

"Ooh, I get it. It's a stupid word play." He forced a quick laugh.

"Pretty much, yeah."

"And why didn't that caterpillar explode as well?"

She snickered. "Explode? Grass attacks are not as effective against bug types."

_So that's why its body was almost cut in half, but the Caterpie's just had wounds. _

"Why is that?"

She thought for a moment. "That's… a good question. Uhm… I don't actually know. I never thought of that, now that I think about it. Everyone just seemed to accept it the way it is, I guess." She shrugged.

They entered the next clearing, and something caught the Shinx's interest: a small round tunnel in the far right corner. It was smaller in height than the other hallways, and also was much more overgrown with all kinds of flora and fauna: grass, moss, and small flowers of different colors. Their aroma was wonderful.

He also found a giant green cocoon on top of it. He shrieked and retreated back into the hall. His tail tucked away between his legs again.

"Huh?" She found out why he was screaming. "Oh, that? Pfft. It's harmless."

_It's… it's harmless? _He stared at her in disbelief. _No way this cocoon looking thing is nothing to worry about._

"What I mean by that is that it can't use any proper moves. Even you could get rid of it. Now come back here, you scaredy-skitty."

"No-no thanks. I'm good." He stepped forward again, eyeing the green thing above him the entire time as if this was a big stalactite about to fall. He pointed at the round-ish tunnel. "Um, any reason why this looks different than the other passages?"

"This one leads you to the next section of the dungeon. In most cases this would be stairs now, but… actually, why aren't they stairs…?"

"Stairs? Why would there be stairs in a forest?"

"Don't question it. It's just the way it is."

**Sudowoods S2**

Inside that small tunnel, the air felt much fresher than in the rest of the last section. Just as if it came from outside. After going through it, they entered another empty room. It felt like they were making progress.

The tunnel behind them suddenly had vanished, as if it had never been there.

"Uh-!" The Shinx froze and stared at the missing path. "Wh- where…"

She shrugged it off. "Don't worry. That's normal."

He let out a heavy sigh. "Of course. Yeah. Disappearing tunnels are… 'normal'. You see it every day!" he said to nobody.

The Chikorita was looking around their current room. There were three paths now. The left one was a long, straight hallway, the one in the middle turned to the right, and the right one curved to the left.

"Now, which way do we go?" asked Kori.

"Huh?" He awoke from his trance. "Oh, uhm… I mean… you're technically escorting me, so you should… you know."

"You're right. We'll go through... this one." She pointed at the middle path.

It turned out it led back to the first room. But upon entering, a shrill cry came from above them, and in the next moment, Kori was pinned down by a dark blue bird with a split featherly tail and a wide beak. It had white feathers on its belly region, and red ones on its face with a V-shape on its chest.

She tried to hit the Taillow with her vines, but it evaded every attempt of her doing so. How was it able to move so fast? She tried it with her leaves, still no luck.

"Shinx, don't just stand there, I need help!"

Just by seeing the strong plant type getting destroyed by a small bird, he was very worried. If this bird is that much stronger than her, he would've had no chance against it.

"I- uh..." What was he supposed to do? Pin it down? Ram it? No, what was he thinking, just get it off of Kori! It hadn't noticed him yet, it was now or never!

"Hey you! Bird for brains! Over here!" ...This didn't seem to have worked… The feral was still attacking as vigorously as before.

"Shinx, I swear to Arceus if you- **just ram it, or- OW!**" She screamed, the bird now pecking at her leaf.

_Arceeos?_ He shook his head, now was not the time! _You heard her! Ram it!_

He managed to get a good run-up, and jumped forwards. Unfortunately, he had miscalculated the strength needed to get off the ground, and missed the bird by almost half a metre. He yelped in surprise at how well he could control his body, and how high he had leaped. But that also meant there was no stopping him while in the air.

He ended up crashing head-first against the wall, and with an "oof" he landed on the ground—the grass softened his landing a tiny bit.

His attempt wasn't in vain, however, as the blue bird now focused on the Shinx instead of the Chikorita. However, before he could stand up again it was already on his back; its talons gripping tightly, piercing his skin with ease.

"Arg!"

He tried his hardest to get it off. It effortlessly evaded every move he made, seemingly always a step ahead of him.

"Get **off** me!" he said with clenched teeth.

Kori jumped into the action, grabbing the bird by its neck and legs, lifting it up. The talons were still grabbing tight, resulting in him getting picked up, too. This made the Shinx scream even more. Even though it was barely for a second, it felt like an eternity.

Kori made sure its claws and beak wouldn't interfere with what she was going to do. It tried its best to break free again, but to no avail. He stared at the bird for a good half minute, seeing it squirm, chirp, and flutter around. She seemed to struggle holding it.

"Now, Shinx, get it!"

_...Huh? 'Get it'?_ What did she mean by that?

"Come on, I can't hold it for much longer!"

Was he supposed to do something?

"**Shinx!** I know this is very sudden but you have to do this!"

He was. Now it clicked. While she was holding and keeping it still, he would come and finish it.

"Can't you just-"

"Shinx I swear if you…" She growled.

He really was. He was supposed to kill this thing.

"I…"

With another worried sigh, he mentally prepared himself and got on his way. His heartbeat accelerated tremendously, getting more nervous by the second. _She didn't say anything about that kind of thing, did she? Do I really have to… end its life?_

"Shinx. Now."

_Calm down... You'd have to do it eventually, right? There's no... other way. Either it dies, or we do... No one will judge you for this… I hope? I really hope._

His back stung more and more with every step he took. Kori carefully lowered the wild beast so he could reach it. It snapped at him and her vines multiple times, but to no avail.

It felt like his subconscious was telling him where he should strike—were these his instincts? Kori held its head up, indicating where he should attack.

He locked eyes with the bird, and it did the same. There was no mercy in them, only bloodlust. Its cries were getting obnoxious. It didn't seem to give up at all.

_The dungeon did this to it, didn't it? Scrambling the creature's mind until only its aggressive instincts are left over._ Would the same happen to them? What if there were Pokemon like Kori or him in here, acting just as primitive?

He shook his head again. Now was still not the time to get distracted.

He lifted his paw, claws outstretched, and struck its throat.

It surprised him how easily his claws got through its feathers, skin, and flesh. Like he was cutting through a cake with a hot knife.

With one last raspy breath and attempt to break free, it fell on the grass, lifeless. Its legs twitched a bit, but it quickly subsided. The color of its eyes slowly changed to gray. Its pearl-white belly feathers began to look like the ones on its neck, but a more darker red. The Shinx stared at his now partly red paw, his claws drenched in its blood.

He… had done it. He had killed something.

He couldn't look away from the corpse, despite the fact there was nothing more he wished for right now. Why had he… felt happy? His breathing was getting irregular. _I just killed something! Why do I feel happy?! _

A sigh came from Kori, "Any longer and I couldn't have held onto it anymore. Taillow have pretty good tenacity. ...Hey, you alright? ...Shinx?"

"I... I… killed something."

"Shinx, calm down, it's-"

"I'm a murderer."

"Stop saying that-"

"Are you seeing this?" He held up his drenched paw with outstretched claws. He looked at Kori, being happy, sad, and terrified at the same time.

"Snap out of it! This is perfectly normal!"

"You say that to everything. Disappearing tunnels? Normal. Suddenly appearing tree golems? Perfectly fine. _Killing things_? **Most trivial thing in the world!**"

The Chikorita realized. _Did I really forget to tell him about this? Oh, I didn't mention this part… uh oh. Not good._

"Do I have to lick it, too?" He asked, looking at his paw.

"Eugh," her face scrunched a little, "no, why would you-"

"What are the next ones gonna think when they see a corpse of a _Pekamon _just laying around?" He glanced at the dead bird, a puddle had formed around it, painting the nearby grass with a dark red color.

"It's Pokemon. And they're not gonna see it, because the-"

"How in the fuck are they not gonna see this giant pool of blood in the middle of this room?!"

"Because the layout will change when someone new enters this dungeon, remember?"

He certainly did remember her saying that earlier. "But- but what if someone enters it right now, and made their way to this section here? They're gonna see me drenched!"

"No, they won't. If someone were to enter this dungeon right now, they would have a completely different first section compared to ours. To actually go through them together, you'd have to enter it at almost the same time, else you'll be alone. This is also the reason why I grabbed you before."

"You could've told me earlier!"

She looked away, realizing her mistake again. How could she have forgotten such an important detail? And to someone who never heard of those dungeons!

"Ok. I'm sorry. And please, put down your leg."

He reluctantly did as he was told. The blood had dried a little, and a few parts of his leg-fur was sticking together. His breathing slowed down to a normal pace.

"Yes, you're completely right. I should have told you this. And I forgot." she said bluntly. "I'm very sorry, but trust me when I tell you that this is absolutely no reason to freak out. And before you interrupt me _again_," she squinted her eyes, "hear me out.

"Dungeons are a very dangerous place, you know that already. I never got into detail _how_ dangerous they were. You were probably thinking they were riddled with traps and pitfalls, or something similar, right? Well, you're not entirely wrong. Yes, some dungeons have traps in them. But what I had meant were the ferals in here. They are _extremely_ hostile against anyone they come across. This bird was going to kill us both."

Her leaf was nibbled on; it was missing a tiny part just to the right of the top. She herself had scratch marks over her spinal-region, too, but they didn't seem to look as bad as his back felt.

"Mmh…"

Suddenly, the thought to be dead Taillow slowly raised its head to look at the Shinx. Its growls and hisses sounded bizarre, wet, like it was burbling. Its wound was still there, and was still bleeding.

"Woah! What the f-" He shouted and pointed his red leg at it. How was it still alive?!

"Huh? What?" She quickly turned around and look at the impossible event that was happening right in front of her. "What in Arceus's name…"

In a blink of an eye, it shot up and went straight for the Shinx, pushing away the Chikorita with ease. It managed to pin him down again, but not before pushing the poor lynx into the corner of the room. He hit his head on it, giving him a strong headache. The bird was towering over him, its talons ready to rip out his insides.

Out of sheer panic, he slashed and continued to rip open this _monster._ It didn't even flinch.

_**...You. ...How are you here?!**_

Before he could realize what happened, two familiar vines grabbed it on its head and body again. This time, however, instead of picking it back up, she snapped his neck with a sickening _**crunch**_. Its body flew straight into the opposite wall, where it made another crack.

The Taillow stopped moving again.

The two of them stared at the thing. They didn't say anything, didn't blink, didn't move any muscle.

"...What…" He managed to say in between heavy breaths, which developed into screaming. "What in the _**FUCK. WAS. THAT?!**_"

Kori was as terrified as he was. "I… I don't know… this..." she trailed off and continued whispering to herself. He couldn't understand her anymore.

"That… it…" He couldn't find his words anymore. "How..."

This mangled Pokemon... How was that possible? He had cut its throat, and it was still alive? It seemed impossible, unbelievable, but yet, it happened. Right in front of their eyes.

Kori started to theorize that the Shinx didn't cut deep enough.

After what felt like hours of silence, she managed to speak up and slowly walked to the long hallway. "Let's… go on. I think I'm getting sick…"

All he could do was nod.

They were quiet until they reached the next room. The only sound surrounding them were the Chikorita's footsteps and the Shinx's heartbeat. He noticed she was shaking because her leaf was over her body, slowly vibrating.

The Shinx made sure nothing was following them. If this... _thing_ came back again…

Halfway through, the Shinx remembered the less strange event that happened to him.

"Kori, it said something…" he managed to blurt out. "_How was I here_…?"

"Huh?" Her voice was also a little shaky. "It said something to you? That's impossible."

"Yeah, but it also would've been impossible for this bird to come and attack again…"

She didn't find an answer to that. "Now I kinda know how you feel about all this. As far as I know, Pokemon couldn't just come back to life… oh no…"

"What 'oh no'?" He instantly looked behind him, only to find yawning emptiness.

She didn't reply. Her breathing got more irregular. Kori managed to get out a whisper. "Look."

Her body shifted to the side for the Shinx to see what was in front of them.

He saw the bird again, not having moved still.

"How in the…"

"Oh, I think I know what this is. This might be the quirk of this dungeon." She glanced at the carapace. "At least… I think it is. Shinx," she turned around, "run into the room, turn right, and dash through that hallway. Ok?"

He nodded, even though this was the last thing he wanted to do: near himself to that monster.

"Then start running. On three."

He stared at it again. He didn't want to go any further. It could attack him at any moment. "One."

His eyes fixated on it. The longer he stood there, petrified, the higher the chances of it to… "Two…"

He couldn't get his eyes away from it. They were glued to it. They didn't blink anymore. They started to burn.

"Three." In an instant, she started running for the only other hallway they haven't explored.

'_...What are you doing…? Just go!' _His mind screamed at him for being stupid. '_What the hell are you waiting for?!'_

As much as he wanted to, he couldn't. The moment he would start running after Kori, it would get him. He knew this was gonna happen. He was certain.

He needed to be completely silent. It could hear him breathe from where he stood.

His legs tip-toed him into the room, nothing happened. He slowly turned his body to the right, still nothing.

_Keep calm… hold your breath… you can do it._ Could it read his thoughts? He hoped not.

He was almost there… perfectly silent, like a predator sneaking up on its prey.

The instant he laid foot into the hallway, he sprinted like a madmon.

This hallway was the first one that had curves—or more like, it was one singular curve—and not sharp corners. _Left, left, left, ...left… wait_. It still continued.

After two more rounds, he realized what was going on. It looped. "It loops? The fuck?"

One more round, just to be sure. "It does. Loop. It does…"

The walls, the grass, the ceiling, everything still looked the same.

"Kori?" He called out, he thought maybe she would hear him.

Another round, and then the sixth. "Kori?"

Did the dungeon trap him? How was he supposed to get out of this? There was just the path in front of him, looping around him indefinitely. It never ended.

Suddenly, he heard something from behind him. Its tapping on the grass got nearer by the second. _Did that monster wake up again?! Oh fuck no!_

He started running away from the noise—he was more hopping than running, but it was quicker than walking—to no avail. It didn't matter how much or for how long he would flee, it would always be following him in here.

_Would I be able to jump it? Last time I couldn't get it off of me, but maybe… Does it know I'm in here?_ He listened closely. Its breathing wasn't raspy or irregular, it made no sounds except for its steps… was it even the Taillow?

"Shinx?" A familiar voice entered his eardrums. It was Kori!

He gasped. "Yes! Kori! I'm here!"

She picked up her pace.

"Where are you?" They both said at almost the same time.

She sounded like she was right in front of him, but he didn't see her. He even heard the footsteps going past him, somehow.

"...Kori?"

"Yes?" Her voice was behind him now.

"How in the…"

"Ok… which direction are you facing right now?"

"How am I supposed to know? Left?"

"Does the path curve to the right or the left?"

He facepalmed himself. "It goes to the right."

"Good. Walk that way. And don't stop."

"But…" he objected, "I would go back…"

"...Just go."

With a worried "Alright?" he made another round through the circling path.

"And for how long?" He barely finished his question as Kori came into view.

"Not any longer. Hey. It took you awhile to get here…"

"Yeah. I know. That thing distracted me…" He shuddered.

She nodded. "Understandable, I'm sorry. Follow me."

"Ok… is everything alright?" She was sounding a little too monotone for him.

"Yes. That Taillow… I'm still shocked at how it managed to survive your attack. How it came back to life was just..." She shook her head. "Well, follow me. I found something."

Of course, the Shinx didn't want to lose her out of his sight again, so he quickly followed. "What did you find?"

She kept silent for a moment, until they reached a small room. It had one of those small overgrown tunnels. "Oh, are we through with it?" he asked.

"Yeah. Hey, how's your back? Does it still hurt?"

He managed to take a peek at his back, surprised yet again at how much his body had changed; this time how flexible his neck was. There were visible claw marks on it, but they looked much worse than they felt. "They sting, but aside that, no. Not really."

"Here." She took out the blue berry he found earlier. "Eat this. You'll feel much better."

"Uhm, what about you?" He looked up at her gnawed leaf, the missing spot had almost healed up. "Oh-"

"Your metabolism works much faster while you are in here." Kori explained. "That's why these wounds look nasty, but don't actually hurt. You heal and recover quicker, but also get hungry more often."

"Huh." _That was sudden… _"...How does that work?"

She made her equivalent of a shrug. "Beats me. Ask the dungeon."

_Ok, she doesn't know. She might also be a little annoyed right now._

He accepted the berry and tried to chew on it. It didn't crack on the first bite, and also not on the second, much harder one. "Jtheeth, how harh ith thah?"

"Very hard."

With his new, sharper teeth he should've easily been able to break its shell, but found it impossible to do so. After three more attempts, he managed to split it open, but half the berry flew out of his mouth and onto the dirty ground. The other half spread a sweet and sour mixture of flavours through his mouth. He instantly felt remarkably refreshed, and the stinging went away, too.

He looked at the other half beneath him, and sighed. That berry tasted incredible. And-

Kori picked it up. "Here you go."

"Uh, no, thanks, uh-" He held a paw in front of his body and shook his head.

She looks annoyed now. "What, is the berry poisoned now that it had hit the ground? Don't be such a baby."

"No, it's alright," he answered in a lower voice, "you can have that."

"Hm. If you say so." Her vine chucked the berry into her mouth, crunching noises came out of it as she destroyed the remaining shell.


	3. Chapter 3

**Sudowoods S3**

This section looked a little different than the others: Low hanging vines slithered down the walls above Shinx and Kori, sprouting harmless looking flowers along them and decorating the walls.

"What is this? Why is the dungeon so tiny…?" Kori mumbled to herself.

"Huh?"

"Oh, nothing," Kori said, "Was just wondering why it's so small. The sections should normally be bigger than this, maybe double the size of the second section. Although… it had that… quirk to it. Not the feral, the weird hallways."

"That's the quirk of this dungeon? Are there… more?"

"Most dungeons don't have one, and some have more than one. This one has-"

"No, no, I meant, are there more quirks than the last one?"

"Ooh, oh. Sorry. Yes, of course. There's… uhm…" She thought for a second. That was the last thing she had learned, so she should've had no problem, but her mind drew a blank right there. "Ugh, I… I'll tell you when I remember. I can't seem to... Traps! That's one. When you step on one, bad things will happen."

"...Makes sense, yeah. Anything else?"

"Uhm… Pits, frenzy, mmh..."

"What's frenzy?"

"Almost everything is doubled. Items, ferals, halls, rooms."

"Oh. Sounds bad."

There were two seperate halls to choose from. One was covered up in vines, the other was free to walk in. Shinx saw movement in the room ahead: a giant Butterfree and two different kinds of caterpillars, one of them he recognized as a Caterpie; the other had what looked like a red coat, with its underside being a light cream color. It had a stinger on its forehead, and two more on its rear. It crawled around with five pairs of stubby legs.

"Hmm," Kori switched her glances between the two. "This looks like the way to go." She walked to the closed off one.

"Uh… Kori?" He was looking at the ferals. With closer inspection, he noticed the wall behind them looked off, like something had been carved into it. The butterfly was blocking most of it, so he couldn't identify what exactly it was. "What's over there...?"

She turned around and saw the Pokemon. "That's the territory of a Butterfree, Caterpie and Wurmple. Let's go through the other path first."

"But… the wall behind them looks… odd."

That made her rethink. Did this dungeon really have…? Maybe. It couldn't be ruled out that this one had two quirks to it, even though this might've been the smallest anomaly to ever exist.

"Oh." She switched glances between the two available hallways. "Actually, we have to go in there. Else we won't get past this section."

"...Why?" The last thing Shinx wanted was to go against more ferals, with the memory of the last section still fresh in his mind. "Do we really have to?"

"Yes."

"Can you at least tell me why we need to go in there?"

"The wall behind them. It'll show us how to get out."

_Ohh, why did I tell her that! I don't wanna… go and… kill them..._

The ferals noticed the two on their way into their territory, and started to hiss. They all focused on the tasty looking leaf on Kori's head.

Kori swung it back and forth, sending sharp leaves flying into the room. Some hit the giant butterfly, but it still fluttered around, now on its way to them.

"Shinx, you take the Caterpie and Wurmple, I get that Butterfree. Careful of their strings!"

"Alright- wait, it can do that, too?"

Kori ran into the room and attempted to vine whip the Butterfree away from the caterpillars, but it easily dodged her attack. She went for the caterpillars instead, slinging them toward the Shinx at the entrance of the room, still focused on the leaf, but then at him when they noticed the second intruder.

_Oh god… I couldn't even take one of those, and now I have to face two at once? I can't do that!_

He dodged the incoming string with a shriek, and felt the Wurmple curl around him with its stubby legs and its stinger stabbing him.

Shinx scratched at the attacker, struggling to get it off of him before it could do anything else. Two strikes from Shinx and it let go, retreating back to its previous position. The wound stung, but not as much as the Taillow's attack.

In that moment, the Caterpie shot another string, and it splatted right onto his face.

"_Aaah_!" A surprised, muffled scream was the only sound he could make before plummeting to the side by the Wurmple. He managed to scratch at it before it could wrap around him again. Its hissing went quiet, was it down?

Shinx attempted to get the web off of his face before the effects would kick in. He remembered not to breath in while it was touching him.

The Caterpie shot yet another string, this time splatting on his front legs. They were now stuck on the web they were trying to get rid of.

He felt everything slowing down around him. Shinx kicked with his hind legs as quickly and hard as he could, in hopes of somehow hitting the caterpillar. There was no chance getting his stuck legs free; the web was too firm.

It landed on his belly and got frightened as the Caterpie's legs moved around his sides. He felt his free legs scratching at something, but was it the Pokemon on him? It had to be, what else would he-

"Ouch! Careful with those!" Kori shouted.

He felt the stubby legs grasping for him, but to no avail. The Chikorita's vines picked it up, and with a _Smack!_ it hit a nearby wall. She hurried to him. "Are you alright?"

Shinx managed to partly free himself from the webs, now that he realised his hind legs could reach up to his face. He was extremely careful of not scratching himself, and with the combination of the web's effect it looked like he was in super slow motion.

Kori couldn't help herself and laughed at this. "Come on, let me help you."

—

"So, what is this?"

On the wall were several lines forming what looked like several paths splitting into three. Only one path continued like normal, the other ones suddenly cut off, leading nowhere. A 'V' was on the left of the carving, most likely indicating their current position, and a circled path on the right, their destination.

"It's the map that'll bring us out of here."

He turned to her. "Uh, didn't you say you can't make maps of dungeons?"

"Yeah, but this… this wasn't drawn by anyone. It was the dungeon."

"Huh?" That confused him. Why would the dungeon show them the map of its current section?

"This is called a 'maze-section'. This type of section is not that uncommon, probably once in every four or five dungeons. But it's always in the last section, so this must lead to the exit. This 'map' is also always protected by ferals that you can find in here, which we just got rid of." She glanced over to the Butterfree.

"Yeah, ok, but why would the dungeon show a map of its own section to us?" He raised a brow. "It doesn't make sense."

"Well, it's, uh… Just be happy it does. I'm pretty sure this is showing us how to get through the other path, the one covered up with vines."

"So, then we just have to memorize the layout?"

"Yup."

"Oh, alright." It turned out it wasn't as hard as he thought: left, middle, left, right, middle. "I think I got it."

"Well, then let's go. I don't wanna be in this room for any longer."

He nodded. "Right."

—

She moved the vines out of the way with her own, to see nothing. It was pitch black in there, the only light shining into the hallway was through their opening. "Oh."

"What, 'oh'?" He couldn't see what was wrong.

"You have to go ahead here. It's too dark for me to see anything in there."

"Uh, too dark? I can see just fine…"

She didn't say anything to that, just staring at the Shinx with the most neutral expression she could muster.

He looked back at her, a similar expression on his face. Why would he have to go ahead all of a sudden? She was the one escorting him, right? He was just following her…

"Shinx…" She snickered. "Did you forget already? You can see in the dark."

Silence again. His mouth opened a little, but no words came out of it. Only slow breaths.

"...Oh… you did. Hehe… _oops_." The last word came out as a whisper.

Kori let him walk through and followed after him. She took extra caution not to bump into or walk too far away from the Shinx. She would occasionally ask him if he was still there, just to be extra safe.

"Shinx?"

"Yeah?"

"You still remember which ways to go, right?"

"Uhm… yeah, of course."

Silence again. _Left, middle, left, right, middle._

She had a tiny feeling he didn't. _Just to make sure. _"...Do you?"

"Do I… what?"

"Do you really know which way to go?"

_Oh my god._ "Yes, I know! Why are you asking so much?"

"I... just wanted to be sure." She smiled.

He sighed.

Going through the last split path, he could see more vines blocking the view into the next room. "Hey, I think we're through."

"You think, _or you're sure_?"

"...What's with you all of a sudden?"

She chuckled. "Nothing… I just wanted to make sure we don't get lost in here."

_Am I that useless? Jeez._

He pushed the vines out of the way, and the two got blinded by the harsh light for a moment. After their eyes accommodated to it, they saw the familiar round tunnel. Behind that tunnel they could see a gravel path, the same they were on before they entered. They went through it at once.

_Is that it?! Finally! We're out!_

"Yep. This is officially the smallest dungeon I've ever been through."

"So we made it?" He inhaled the fresh air and exhaled happily, "Aahhhaha! Finally!"

The sun shone brighter than ever, smiling at the two as a reward for beating one of these dreaded dungeons. Birds' chirpings entered their ears, which Shinx hadn't noticed had been absent until now. A flock of them flew over their heads into the horizon. The sky was as light blue as it could get, not a single cloud in sight. The path continued like nothing had happened, trees next to it rustling in the nice summer breeze.

He sighed in relief and awkwardly sat down on the grass and rested his legs.

Speaking of legs, his dried up one still reeked of dead bird. And a little bit of squashed bugs.

The Shinx felt filthy. He needed to wash it off with something.

Looking behind him, he saw the familiar purple fizzles dancing around; they started to create shapes again as they entered his vision. He made sure to look away this time.

"Say," he said, turning to the Chikorita. She was equally relishing the warm rays on her scaly skin. "Where can I, uh, wash my leg? You know, because it smells."

"Hmm, worst case, not until we reach Inisio. That's where a friend of mine lives."

He grumbled. He had ignored the smell until now, but now that the wind returned, it re-directed the smell right into his nose. "Inisio? So, you have like, villages and stuff?"

"Of course. Where did you think we lived?"

"I…" He tapped his muzzle—with his clean leg, of course. "I haven't really thought about that."

"Uh, what did you just- oh, was that a human thing?"

"Huh? What was?"

"The," she replicated his tapping. "That. What was that? Did it itch?"

"Uhh," he didn't know what to answer her at first, "...Yeah? It's like, you do that when you're thinking about something."

"Interesting, ok. Why?"

_Why indeed… _"I guess it just developed into a habit we just did without noticing it. Have you never met humans?"

She looked at him, puzzled. "Do I look like I'm over a thousand years old?"

"No, no, I meant-" He snickered. "I meant you all. Your kind in general."

"Oh." She mentally facepalmed. "We have, I think. Yeah."

"You _think?_" He smiled.

"Yes, I'm not sure. I was never really good in history lessons…"

_...They have school?_

"But! Inisio has a small museum which also has a tiny bit of human history. We could check that out some time. Maybe."

"Interesting."

She gasped, getting an idea. "It could help you with your memory loss! Nevermind, Shinx, we should go there immediately."

"Oh, you're probably right!" He really hoped it would help, if just a tiny bit. "And… how long until we get to Inisio? Wherever that is?"

"If we continue right now, we can still get to it before sunset. But I'm pretty sure it's closed until then… well, we can just go tomorrow."

"But… won't they freak out when I…" he was about to show her what he meant, but she already shook her head.

"No. Don't worry about a thing. They won't even look at it weird. You'll be fine."

"O-ok. Ok." He stood up. "Alright, time to go?"

She nodded.

"Lead the way." Shinx said.

—

On their way, they came across more of the nearby wildlife, the Shinx stared at them curiously. They looked similar, yet were completely different species from what he could remember. He got frustrated: why had he lost memories of what could've been useful here? Why was he here, anyway? How did he get here?

Questions upon questions formed in his head, with no answer in sight.

By the time he calmed down, he wondered: _Why haven't we met anyone yet? We've been walking for probably an hour, and I only saw wild creatures so far. There's no way we're the only ones that could… well, talk. They only occasionally looked at us, and when I glanced back, they quickly looked away and went on their way again._

"Don't you think we should've met anyone while on our way here? It feels… kinda empty."

"Hmm, unlikely. We have this new method of travelling. Very new; everyone wants to try it."

"What is it?"

"Have you seen any Drifblim? Uh-" she halted herself, "round, darkish objects in the sky?"

"Nnnno… not really? Should I?" Just as he said that, he spotted a dark spot over the horizon, floating ominously. Beneath it, a smaller, brown one.

"That, do you see that?" Kori pointed at it. "That's what I meant. They have a station in Inisio. And probably at every other place by now, too."

"And, what is that, exactly?" He squinted, it looked like a purple hot-air balloon holding a basket with four yellow strands.

"That's what we call a 'Drifbloon'." A small ember shot out of the basket and into the balloon. "They have the same shape as the Pokemon I mentioned earlier, Drifblim. These balloons can transport up to four Pokemon at once in that basket."

"That's kinda neat… why aren't you using one of those?"

"Because I like a nice walk. And I don't want to pay money for them to get me somewhere where I can get to in less than a day."

"Wait, so, if you had taken that from wherever you came from, you would've never found me…"

"Yep. Lucky Shinx." She winked.

He hummed, a little worried. "That's still pretty far, though. And, money?" He raised a brow. "You have… currencies?"

"You still have much to learn about this world, Shinx." She said with a grin.

"Yeah..."

Giant flowery meadows as far as the eye can see; a wonderful mixture of red, yellow, pink, and blue, with a couple trees scattered around. Everything looked so… alive. Untouched.

Nature was a wonderful thing, and it showed.

But there were no rivers or lakes anywhere.

It continued like this for the rest of their way, until they came across a junction going left and right. In front of the two was a wooden sign, with their sides showing left and right respectively. It had strange hieroglyphic symbols on it, barely resembling the alphabet Shinx was familiar with. The left one had 'INISIO - 2.9 KM' carved on it, and the other 'GHALES - 5.2 KM'. There didn't seem to be any lower-case symbols.

He stared at it in bewilderment: he could read these alien symbols! He expressed his surprise to Kori.

"You actually can? Wonderful! Then I don't have to read anything out for you." She snickered, glancing back at the sign. "Oh! By the way," She turned to him. "Since you can't remember your name, how would you like me to give you one? Temporarily, of course."

He didn't expect that… unique question. "Uhm, why now, exactly? And all of a sudden?"

"I know I… should've asked that earlier, but I didn't, because we were in a dungeon. I don't wanna keep calling you Shinx when we arrive in Inisio, because calling someone by their species's name is… demeaning. Sorry." Her leaf drooped.

"Oh. But… it's ok. I didn't know. And you didn't mean it. I wasn't bothered by that name..."

She saw right through him. "That's a lie and you know it." She stretched out her tongue.

"Huh? Oh. Right. But no, really, it's fine."

"Mhmm. Sure. If you say so then… So, should I find a name for you, or do you want to think of one for yourself?"

"I mean, honestly? I don't really care. Well, a little bit, but-"

"How's Sune? No, wait, Xunie."

That was… fast. "Xunie…?"

She nodded. "Yeah. You like it?"

He repeated this name in his head. _Xunie. Xunie…_ "I… Sure. I'll take it."

"Alright! Your name is now Xunie. Until proven otherwise."

They went left. The sun was behind them now, the orange sky slowly disappearing and losing color. Their shadows became longer and longer for each passing minute.

_Is it a cave? Is it a forest? Is it…_ He ran out of ideas. Somehow, he was getting more nervous by the second, and he wasn't sure why. Perhaps because he would meet more talking aliens like Kori? He would at the very least meet Kori's friend. And… _Wait, where can I sleep? Would her friend allow a complete stranger to stay overnight?_ That was the reason.

He voiced his concerns.

"Of course you'll be able to stay. Would be really cold-hearted to just leave you alone in your current state. Don't worry." She smiled, her leaf bobbing with her.

He sighed, relieved. "Thanks." Silence for a couple seconds. "You know, I'm kinda looking forward to see how you all live."

"Oh, I'm sure it's not as special as you think. If you still know how humans lived, that is."

"Yeah, in houses. Most of them. Wait, so you...?"

"Mhmm." She nodded again.

—

The sun was almost gone, the moon shone brilliantly over the soon to be night sky. A couple stars started to show up, glittering in the almost black sky. Xunie didn't know why, but the sight alone was relaxing him, to the point where he wanted to lay down on the grass and just watch the sky all night. Something about this hit a mark deep within him, reminding him very briefly of a time before.

"Whoah~" he said, astonished about the shining stars above him. He was laying on a blanket, staring at the infinite emptiness and its glittering spots. The chilly evening wind was blowing around him, but he didn't mind, as he pointed at the sky, "They look so beautiful!"

"They sure do," someone said left of him, a soothing female voice, one he could always recognise.

"Can we stay here forever pleeaase?"

"No sweetie," she said, "it's getting cold, and you need your sleep. Tomorrow's your big day. You need plenty of rest."

His big day. He had been looking forward to it for over a year. But all that anticipation had evaporated, as he was laying there, not caring about anything in the world. For now, it was him, his blanket, and his stars. "Nooo, I wanna watch the staaars!"

"I know you want to, but _you need to-_"

He opened his eyes. How long was he gone? Not too long, he realized he was still on the path, next to Kori. The combination of the air, and the smell of grass made his eyes heavy, it soothed his entire body.

What was that… dream? Was it even a dream? No, no. It was… he remembered something!

"Hey, don't fall asleep now! We're almost there. Didn't you sleep enough for today?"

"Kori… I remembered something!"

"...What?" She perked up. "You do?"

"I mean… I just had this dream of sorts… where I was laying down, looking at the stars, and someone was with me…"

"Hmm. Was it family?"

"I'm… not sure. It sounded familiar, kinda, but…"

"Oh, I see. Sorry." She looked forward again, leaf drooping again.

_Stop thinking about it. If it was family, I would've definitely known who that voice was. How could I forget about my… family? My… My- no, no no no! Stop. Thinking. About it._

He barely suppressed the urge to break down and cry his eyes out. _Stop! No!_ He was swinging his head from side to side with every word that entered his mind.

Eventually, he stopped. He looked at Kori, seemed like she didn't notice his small little outbreak. Good.

"Hey, Xunie, we're here."

Rowed wooden houses greeted the two, with lampposts decorating the gravel path, small flames dancing inside the glass. Every house looked very similar to each other, safe from the color. Some were lit up, the interior barely visible through the small windows they could look through. They also had a mailbox in front of them. The path continued like normal, splitting into two again a little way inside the village.

A couple houses had some sort of… garage door next to them? It looked like one, at least. What were these for? Above these was what looked like a sign, but he couldn't see what was on it from the side. Shops? Maybe. He would investigate tomorrow.

It was still very quiet, save for nature's sounds. As they entered Inisio, he could hear muffled voices coming from the various homes. They were too quiet to tell what they were saying.

"This is where she lives." Kori pointed at a striped white-purple colored house. The inside was lit, so someone had to be home.

He got nervous again. This would be the first encounter with another sapient lifeform in this world. How would it look like? Was she like Kori? Maybe she looked similar to one of the wilds? No… or maybe?

Kori walked up to the door, and knocked on it twice. She motioned him to come. "Come on, Xunie, don't be shy!"

"Uh-" he hesitantly walked up to it, and it opened.

A long, furry body was at the other side, smiling when it saw Kori. Its body was brown-cream striped, with the tip of its tail and ears cream colored.

"Hey, Kori!" she outstretched her short front limbs. "Long time no see! And, oh! You got someone with you, hello!" She waved.

_Oh god. _"Uhm, hi." He awkwardly did the same.

Kori sighed. "Hey, Cary. This is Xunie. Xunie, this is Cary."

"Where did you pick him up? ...Shinx aren't really… around here that often."

"Oh, I…" She looked at him. "I met him on the way here."

Cary hummed and looked at Xunie. "Rare to see one of you around here nowadays."

"I'm sure you got my letter?" Kori asked.

"Ah, yes, of course. Sorry, where are my manners, come in, you two."

They entered, and Cary closed the door. Xunie noticed something odd about the handle, it had a ring underneath it, where his paw could fit through with ease. He guessed that none of these creatures would have hands to grab things, so that was probably a 'one for all' door handle.

The interior was very neatly furnished, the living room right in front of them. It looked all so familiar: she had a couch; a small table with a closed book on it, bookmarked on a random spot; bookshelves full of literature of different color and thickness; and a round carpet underneath it all. The floor was also normal wood, except for the entrance: a rough fabric that looked easy for his paws to get stuck in. At least they felt cleaner after walking through it.

Behind the living room was what looked like a small kitchen, with a white tiled floor. She even had a refrigerator and an oven! Cupboards with windows were above the oven, containing all sorts of glasses and chinaware in them.

The room was lit via a ceiling lamp. He was astonished: they had electricity! Well, some of them (including him) could control it via whatever magic they possessed. But… were there Pokemon somewhere, constantly generating electricity for others? ...Probably not, but then where did it come from? He would ask Kori later.

It continued into a corridor next to the kitchen, with two more brown doors in it. One on the left, and one straight ahead. On the right was a window with a flowery green curtain.

Kori poked him with a vine and whispered, "You should maybe ask if you could clean that leg of yours."

Right. That's what he wanted to do. He'd done a good job of ignoring it until now.

"Uh, ex- excuse me?" Xunie asked. "Where's the… uh…"

"Oh, no need to be so shy about it. The washroom's the first door to the left over there." She pointed at the small corridor.

"...Thank you."

_They have washrooms? ...What a stupid question. Of course they do. Is it like a bathroom?_

He barely reached the handle with both this front legs—the smell intensified for a short while—and it opened to reveal a similar white tiled floor and walls. These were smaller than in the kitchen. He promptly headed for the bathtub across the room, but not before closing the door behind him. Xunie didn't even notice that the room was pitch black.

He jumped up and into the tub, struggling a little with his hind legs. _Just the leg, right? Or…_ He looked at the faucet. _Well, here goes nothing. It's just a faucet, it can't be that hard to figure out how it works, right?_

…

"So," Cary said, "Xunie's his name, right?"

"Yeah."

"And you said you met him on the way here?"

"Mhmm."

"So you're not, like, together?"

"What? No! We met like, a couple hours ago. I don't even know him that well. Shut up."

Cary laughed. "Did he tell you where he came from?"

"He…" Kori thought for a second. Should she tell her? Cary's her best friend, but… it'd still be weird to just say that she met a former human. "He, uh," She couldn't decide whether to just say it outright or… Kori looked around, even though Xunie was still in the other room, she went down to a whisper. "To tell you the truth, and I know it's really bizarre, but he was once a human."

"He…" Cary shot up, almost screaming, "What?!"

"Yeah, I know!"

"No way."

"Yes way!"

Cary stared at her in disbelief. "He's pulling you by the tail. That's impossible. And you believe him?"

That made her think again. Something about that was indeed wrong. Was he really telling the truth? "...You think he's lying?"

"Did he actually prove that he's a human? Did he tell you something that only a human would know?" Cary held her stubby legs on her sides.

"Well, for one, he's a Shinx. I know there are no Shinx around here in this part of Ferom, but... actual proof? Did he…?"

"He could've just wandered north."

"He also laid unconscious in a patch of burned grass, so that's also something… uh, to account for."

"Really?" Cary raised a brow. "How'd that happen? Was he in a fight?"

"I dunno." Kori shrugged. "Really. Nothing about his body indicated that something happened to him. No cuts, no bruises, no irregular breathing… literally nothing. But, there he was, surrounded by ash. I didn't know what to do, so I took him with me. I couldn't just leave him there!"

"Hey, I'm not saying that was the wrong thing to do. I just don't believe he was actually human." Cary shook her head. "It just doesn't add up. It's impossible."

"I know, I know." Kori rolled her eyes. "He also told me he couldn't remember anything about himself. He _also _also told me he doesn't know what Pokemon are."

Cary shook her head again. "No, no no. He's lying. I know it."

"I'm serious, he-"

The door opened, and a drenched Xunie peeked out of the darkness, dripping water onto the floor.

"Hey, uh, can I just use any towel in there?"

Cary looked at her wet floor before answering. "Yeah… sure, just put them back after you're done." She sighed.

"O-ok…" He went back into the room.

"...I, I mean," Kori contínued, "he sounded genuine enough for me to believe him, even though it's something as absurd as this. And- you let him use your washroom. That means you trust him."

"I'm trusting you to trust him. And claiming to not know anything about us? That's a giant red flag for me. Because, come on. That doesn't even make sense, does it?"

Kori shrugged. "To be honest, that made me hesitate, too. But again, he had just woken up and who knows how long he was passed out. I'm kinda surprised he hadn't died of thirst yet."

Cary hummed, closing her eyes. "Alright," she opened them, "he may be a unique individual, but I still don't trust his human schtick."

"So, can he stay with us overnight?"

She glanced over to the puddle of water on the ground. "Fine. But someone has to sleep on the couch. I don't have that much space."

"Awesome. Thank you."

"You're too nice sometimes. One day you'll bring home a Zoroark who disguised itself as a Rockruff who tells you he's the incarnation of Arceus-"

Kori tackled her playfully. "Oh, shut up, you!"

…

Xunie barely managed to hang the extremely fluffy towel back onto the radiator. He breathed in deeply, and exhaled just as slowly. "This feels great." He exited the room and looked at the two others. Cary was wrapped around Kori as they laughed about something he didn't hear. He stepped on his puddle, realizing that it formed while he was peeking out of the room. He sighed and took the towel off the radiator again.

_Don't wanna give her a bad first impression. She's the one who decides if I can stay or not. And the washroom looks… as it had been when I entered. Good._

After he finished, he joined the two, still wrapped up in their… whatever they're doing.

"Hey, Cary."

"Huh? Oh!" They quickly unwrapped themselves. Did they not notice him? "Sorry, yes?"

"Thank you for… your kind welcome. And that I could… uh, clean off." He sat down.

Cary smiled, "No problem. Say, you have nowhere to go, right?"

He shifted nervously, "...Nnno, I don't. ...Why?"

She glanced at Kori. "She told me everything. You're claiming to be a human?"

_Oh, oh god. What… _"Uh… Kori, did you really?"

"No need to worry, you can trust her."

Cary studied his body. "You don't even sit correctly…"

"...Huh?" His hind legs were spread, and his front ones right in front of his torso. She was right, his tail felt stiff already.

_Oh. My. I totally forgot I had a tail now… It feels sooo weird… Did I just ignore it until now? _

"You're leaning way too far back, and put too much pressure on your tail. Stand up."

Kori snickered, and he did as he was told.

"Now lower your rear part of your body. Just lower it to the ground."

He obeyed, his hind legs now directly next to him, and leaning forward with his fronts. "Oh…"

"See, much better. And I bet more comfortable, too."

"...Yeah. Thanks."

Kori couldn't keep it together anymore. She fell on her back, wheezing.

"Heheh, uh…" Xunie awkwardly glanced at Kori.

Cary sighed, but still had a smile on her. "Typical Kori."

"What, does she do that… often?"

"Mhm, she can be serious at times, but most of the time she's just all cheers and happiness. Look at her." Kori was calming down, but still let out a laughter followed with a wheeze. She had a hard time catching a break from rolling around. "It's contagious."

Cary was right, he was beginning to chuckle. "Alright Kori, I get it. Calm down please."

"Haaah, haahh…" She turned to the side, taking deep breaths. "Haaa… Oh my… Sorry Xunie..."

"No problem..."

"Xunie," Cary said. "You really may be out of this world. Or just a real good actor, but I don't think that's the case. I think I can believe you when you say you weren't a Pokemon. It's still very odd, though. Borderline unbelievable."

"I wish I knew. Oh, how I wish I'd know why I'm a… um, Shinx now."

"Well, there's clearly no reason to think about why or how it happened, when we clearly don't have the answers to that. Let's just, talk about something else. For example you, Xunie."

"Uh- what about me?"

"What about you? You're a human turned Pokemon, who lost all of their past memories! What isn't there about you that's not worthy to talk about?"

"But… I don't know anything about, you know. Anything."

"There has to be something, right?" Cary leaned a little closer.

"Xunie," Kori said, "you said something about remembering a thing about your past on our way here, or not? What was it exactly?"

"That, uhm, it's… nothing, really. It was just me laying on the ground watching the stars."

"What about the voice? Do you remember anything about it? What did it say?"

"Ugh, it's… it felt so familiar… It said something about a 'big day'. And that we needed to go inside again, because the next day was this 'big day'. It was soothing, and called me sweetie, too…" The last part was more quieter.

"Sweetie…" Kori repeated. "Sounds like a family member, most likely. Maybe your mate?"

Cary leaned towards her and whispered, "Kori, I don't think humans have 'mates'."

"Well, then what else?"

"Loved ones?" Xunie answered.

"Ah, sorry," Kori responded. "Let's go with that, then. Was it one?"

"I don't… I'm not sure… I… I don't know!"

"Your mother?" Cary suggested.

"Right, that would also make sense."

"My mother…? Was it…?" Xunie sharply inhaled and jumped up. "My mother! It was my mother! I remember! Oh my god… my mother... " He sat back down again, head hung low. "She must be… so worried about me… Ohh..."

"I…" Cary exchanged glances with Kori, then said quietly, "I don't think she's missing you, Xunie."

"Huh?"

Kori finished Cary's response, "Humans are extinct, remember?"


	4. Chapter 4

"They're… right. They're extinct." Xunie sighed at the reminder. Had he really been gone for several millennia? That seemed insane, but… so was the transformation into an alien species. He looked down onto himself. "My god, what happened to me…?"

Kori and Cary looked at each other worryingly, then back at Xunie.

"I'm-" Cary began, reassuringly, "I'm sure everything'll be fine, someday."

"Yeah," Kori continued, "try not to worry too much about that. We'll keep you company." She and Cary smiled warmly.

Xunie couldn't help himself and smiled back. "Thanks. I really appreciate your nice welcome. Everything's still very blurry, and I don't think I'll figure out what happened to me any time soon. So… the only logical thing to do is to just not think about it. I guess..."

The two nodded. "It'd be the best, yeah." Cary said.

Kori seemed to remember something. "Arg, dammit. Cary, I'll be back very soon. I need to report something." Kori headed for the door, a vine extending to grab the handle.

"Huh? What? What reporting?"

"A new dungeon appeared. Be back soon." She went through the door and closed it behind her.

"Oh my." Cary sighed, front paws touching. "One day they'll devour our village here, so help us." She looked at Xunie again. "You went through that with her, right?"

"Yeah, I did. She said it's the smallest she's been through."

"Well. Even then, they creep me out. They just appear out of nowhere. Like, boom," she moved her arms in a circular motion, "it's there." She shuddered. "There's no telling where the next one'll pop out…"

Xunie quietly hummed in agreement.

"Say, you had quite the encounter in there, didn't you? With how your leg looked like. Do you wanna… tell me what happened?"

The screeches and chirps of the Taillow returned in his mind. That… horrible thing. Terrifying. As if something possessed its dead body for a second. The warbled voice it had. The strength, the speed. Unnatural.

"We… uh, happened to come across a Taillow. It attacked us, and I had to deal the… I had to kill it." He jerked back a little, looking up at the Furret. Should he tell her that it had turned into a zombie? Or was that… no it wasn't normal, Kori was shocked, too…

"You two had quite the fight against that, huh? Kori had the disadvantage, so that's probably why you had to do it."

He hummed again. "Yeah. Probably."

The two stared at each other in silence. As it slowly turned awkward, Xunie continued humming while looking around Cary's home, focusing on random spots.

"Are you feeling okay, Xunie?"

"Well," He focused on a random spot in the room for a few seconds. "it's… hard to describe." _Still weirded out by everything._ "A little tired, too."

"I mean, I get it, because you were a human, you know? And now you're… well, not. I was just a little curious."

"Oh. Uhm…" He thought for a second. "It's… weird. Insane." He shook his head. "I dunno how to explain it."

"I see. It was a stupid question to ask. Anyway," She shifted a little, standing more upright, "I wasn't expecting two guests today, so someone has to sleep on the couch here." She pointed behind her. "Excuse me while I prepare it."

The couch was a few times bigger than Xunie, so he shouldn't have any space problems on it. Cary walked over to it and reached underneath it, extending it to almost twice its size.

"Wow." Xunie said. "You have it really nice in here. I initially thought you lived in… caves. Or forests. Not in proper houses. With electricity. Or running water."

She looked puzzled at first, but it turned into a smile. "Some live in houses, like me, and everyone else here in this village. Some on the other paw prefer to live underground, or in forests, as you said." She entered the third room of the house, the bedroom.

Xunie decided to follow her and examine the last room. It looked like a common bedroom: two beds in each opposite corner with colorful flowery covers on their blankets and pillows. The one on the left looked very tidy, the other one a little wrinkled and hastily made, a little hairy, too. The window between them was covered with the same flowery curtain as the one in the corridor. The floor was carpeted black and light gray, looking like sound waves.

Cary was on his left, rummaging through what looked like a wardrobe, but she was blocking most of the inside. It was presumably only used for storing spare covers for the beds, and some for the couch. Maybe also cleaning utensils? He wasn't sure.

But the thing to his right confused him. "Cary?"

"Ah- huh?" She sounded surprised at hearing him right behind her.

"Oh, sorry, I was just wondering if that's… a TV?" The text at the bottom center said 'Magtilo', with what most likely was their logo next to it: a circle with two magnets on each side.

"Mhmm, it is. You should know best; it's a human invention. Really comes in pawy when you have one of those evenings where you have nothing to do. I preferably just read a book, but sometimes I switch between the two, you know?"

"...Pawy?"

She stopped and looked at Xunie. "...What?"

"That's what you said."

"Yeah, what about it?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"When something's convenient for you…?"

"...Ooh." _Right, they don't have… hands? So they don't say 'handy'. Makes… kind of sense? Maybe?_

She turned around again. "Something wrong with that?"

"No! No, uhm, it's… ah, forget it."

After a bit of silence between them, Xunie examined the device a little closer. "...I can't believe you are so… advanced. Electricity, water, a warm home, it's just… unbelievable."

Cary giggled. "Well. We evolved, too. Very long and complicated story."

"In just a couple millenia? Doesn't it take… millions of years for any kind of evolution?"

"Weeell," she sounded unsure, "it's… not as simple as you think. I can't explain it either. Ah, there it is." She picked up a grey blanket and cover. "Took me long enough."

She hushed back into the living room and prepared the couch-bed. Xunie followed.

He examined the bookshelf now; every book was in alphabetical order. From 'A Mew beginning: Legends and Myths' to 'Zygarde, the Others, and Me - Volume 2'. He wondered for a moment if all the letters in them were the same as the ones on the covers, but quickly realized how stupid that thought was. One particular book caught his interest: 'Human History'.

"Hey… Cary?"

She hummed.

"Can I… take a closer look at that book up there? The human history one."

"Oh! Good idea. Maybe you'll remember anything. Sure, I'll get it for you." Xunie didn't realize how big Cary was until now, she stretched herself to almost double her height.

_Where does her tail begin? Or does this not count as a-_

"Here you go." She laid the book infront of him.

"Thank you." _Well, here goes nothing. Where to start, though…?_

—

"And? Found anything yet?"

Xunie groaned. How long has it been, half an hour? Probably longer. It felt like it. He hadn't found anything of interest yet. Not even remotely. All this fancy talk about how the human race was the worst and whatever stretched through the entire book. The wars, the diseases, the conflicts, everything that was bad about them was in here. Although it told of their inventions and the solidarity in times of calamity, the bad greatly outweighed the good.

"No…" He sighed. "Do you have any other books like this?"

"Mmmh…" She glanced over the shelf. "I'm afraid not."

"Alright," he said disappointingly. "Guess it's the museum then. Kori told me you have one here."

He closed the book and Cary put it back on its place. "So, is it true? That humans were… evil?"

"Ehh," he was careful not to say anything wrong, "not all were… _this_ bad. There were good ones, of course. It was quite diverse."

"I see-" Two knocks on her door. "Oh, that must be Kori."

Cary opened the door and let the Chikorita inside.

"Hey. Sorry for taking so long. They had to check it for themselves." She continued with a mocking tone, "Apparently some kids thought it was funny and reported a dungeon in the same exact forest."

"You think Growlithe and his friends?"

"I dunno. They didn't tell me."

"Well, anyway. They know now."

"Uh," Xunie interrupted, "who are 'they'?"

"The Rescue Troop." Kori replied. "RT for short. They have groups all over Ferom. They're the ones that made one of the maps I have in here." She nudged at her bag.

"Uh, what? What's… Ferom?"

"This continent's name."

"Oh. And the Rescue Troop? Who are they?"

"Oh boy." Cary whispered, rolling her eyes.

Kori explained that they were an organization of Pokemon that grouped together to help others in need. They formed shortly after the dungeons started appearing. There were four main groups, correlated to each cardinal direction. Every village has at least three Pokemon of their respective main group in it. Inisio had four, since it was a slightly larger village than most others.

The name came from what they did the most: rescuing Pokemon from dungeons. Normally, everyone was supposed to have a 'call badge' with them when they leave any villages. These, when activated, could send a distress signal to the nearest RT group with all the information they needed to get to the sender when something happened.

Kori was about to tell Xunie who invented it and the members of this village's group, but Cary stopped her.

"Alright, I think that's enough for now, Kori."

"Ah- oh, did I…? Sorry." She laughed, a bit embarrassed.

"That's interesting," Xunie said, "do you have one of those in there, Kori?" He pointed at her bag just under her green growths.

"Of course." She opened it and pulled out the badge with a vine. It was silver-gray in color, and had an oval shape with engravings around it.

_Interesting design... Do these squiggles have any meaning, or… are they just that?_

"Everyone gets one of these. They're slim and don't get in the way when you're searching for items in your bag. Each of them has your name engraved in them, too." She put the badge on the ground and turned it around. There was a plate with her name and species on it.

"Neat."

"Anything else…? Uh," Cary was glaring at Kori, "no, that's everything." Kori put it back.

"Did you report the… you know? The bird?"

"The Taillow. Yeah, yeah, I did."

"The Taillow?" Cary's ears perked up and looked at Xunie. "What's with it?"

Xunie and Kori looked at each other, and then at Cary.

"Well…" Xunie started.

"Something strange happened with it." She shook her head, "...It came back to life."

"It… huh? Came back?"

Kori nodded. "He killed it, and it came back a minute later, pinning him down. Scariest moment of my life, my goodness."

"I… I don't understand. How?"

"Neither do we, but I reported it and they said they'll investigate after confirming that there's a dungeon in there now."

Kori squirmed uncomfortably, so did Xunie at the mention of it. "So," he wondered, "is that also a quirk of dungeons? That they come back to life? ...Did I ask that already?"

"As far as I know, no. This isn't normal. Even though it's an anomaly, this isn't supposed to happen."

"Alright," Cary interrupted, "can we not talk about those things please? They give me the creeps. And it's getting late. Aren't you two tired?"

Xunie certainly was exhausted, but Kori didn't seem to be in the slightest. "A little bit…" Xunie yawned, baring his teeth for everyone to see. "Maybe I'll just go and sleep. A lot of things happened today."

"Yeah, no doubt." Kori agreed. "I'd be best for you to just lay down for today."

"You can use the spare bed in the other room, and Kori," she looked at her, "if you have nothing against it, you can have mine. I'll sleep here."

"On the couch? You sure?"

Cary nodded. "You're guests, after all. It's fine."

"Yeah," Xunie said, "I think I'm gonna go right now. Thanks, Cary."

With a smile, she said, "No problem. Sleep well."

Saying his "Good night" to them and entering the bedroom, he jumped onto his sleeping place. The blanket was very soft, and so was the mattress. After a minute of fidgeting around in one place, he found a sleeping position and shut his eyes, drifting off to sleep.

_So warm… _

He could still hear them in the other room, talking about something. They were quiet enough for him to ignore it.

—

Images of a time unknown flashed past his vision, voices of all kinds came and went, all mushed together. As Xunie turned around, walls erected out of the ground next to him, growing indefinitely high. Red and blue light were fighting over dominance in a light show. The ground, empty. Invisible. Infinite void was underneath him, and holding him was an invisible platform.

At the end of the tunnel he saw something, but couldn't identify it. Maybe it might've been his imagination. After blinking once, it was gone.

_...Wait…_

He turned around again.

A Shinx laid underneath a tree, surrounded by a ring of ash. Very slowly breathing.

_Is that me?_

He tried jumping down from the platform, but something stopped his legs from moving.

A Chikorita approached the unconscious body, shaking and examining him and her surroundings. She wrapped the Shinx with her vines, and-

_WHA-!_

His vision turned red. She threw the headless Shinx on the ground next to her, and began examining the head.

_WHAT IN THe fff…_ Something silenced his thoughts. He tried screaming, but couldn't. Despite his best efforts, he was unable to look away from this horrifying scene before him.

He began to panic, and what he thought to be Kori turned to him with a sickening smile. Razor sharp teeth grew out of her mouth, and she turned 'his' head towards him.

_**There you are.**_

The voice was loud and garbled, and echoed through the air around him. This was the same voice the Taillow had! His confused and muffled shouting didn't do anything. The thing managed to slam him down from the air with a vine and he landed with a thud. Pain shot through his body, which bewildered him even more. He couldn't feel his legs anymore.

_**Do you want to suffer like the others?**_

The Chikorita suddenly stood on two legs, its spine cracked to allow it to balance itself in this new form. Its front legs were extending and losing their bone structure, cracking and snapping as they bent in unnatural ways. Underneath them, its insides moved, squirmed around and more bones cracked: it grew another set of limbs, intertwining with the first set, growing longer, and longer.

Xunie couldn't believe what he was seeing. What was this thing…? It was going to kill him and he couldn't do a thing!

It let out a low, laughing growl. _**Looks like that's a yes. **_

The thing limped towards him, one step at a time, and with each step it looked more and more grotesque. Its arms reached out to him, air escaping his lungs as they pressed harder and harder, slithering around his body. He couldn't breath. He couldn't struggle.

His vision faded for a second, but came back as the thing slammed him onto what felt like a crude wooden wall, almost destroying it in the process. A splinter pierced into his head.

Every new word resulted in him getting slammed against the wall again. _**This. Is. What. You. Get. For. Trying. To. Get. **_**HELP!** Two separate voices.

He screamed his lungs out, jumping and falling out of bed. Hyperventilating, he held his fore legs behind his head, checking if anything happened and anxiously looked around the blurred room, finding Kori staring at him with half open eyes. He had been crying.

'_Help'_

One word was standing out from the others.

'_Help'_

Someone else cried it out, it came from the monster.

'_Help_'

The word echoed in his mind, unable to silence it.

_What… the fuck... What in… the…_ he repeated the same words in his mind while Kori, still half asleep, asked him what was wrong.

Xunie was unable to answer.

Cary came peeking in, seeing him cowered away in the corner next to his bed. "Is everything alright? What happened? I heard screaming…"

"Xunie had a nightmare, most likely… a horrible one." She worriedly glanced at him.

He mumbled a few words. "Help. Whatwasthat? What? What help. _What in the everloving fuck whassat._.."

"Xunie," Kori assured him. "It's gonna be alright. It wasn't real."

_That thing… strangling, thorn, head… help?_

"Well, looks like you have it under control, so I'mma go back to bed. Goodnight."

Kori said her goodnight, and got down from Cary's bed, walking to Xunie. She sat down next to the whimpering mess.

"Hey, it's alright. I'm here. Tell me what's wrong. What did you dream?"

In his anxious state, he almost jumped away after noticing Kori was on her way to him. "I… I- I saw myself, as you described when you found me… you came up to me, and… you beheaded me, and- and then… you changed."

She was taken aback by that answer, not knowing what to say.

"And- and you spoke… like the Taillow did… with me."

"The Taillow?" she whispered, "The one from the dungeon?"

He nodded.

"And what did I say?"

"That… you found me." Xunie continued with a whisper, "Suffer... like the others…?"

"...Suffer?"

"And- you slammed me against a wall… because I tried to get help. Help… that thing also cried out help..."

"...Xunie." She put a leg on his back and her leaf over him. "Don't worry. Everything's ok now. I'm pretty sure you got this nightmare because you… well, everything changed for you."

"I- I…"

"Try to sleep some more. Think about something happy, ok?"

_...Happy? Not a single thing I've experienced so far makes me happy. _"...I'll try. Thanks."

She patted him and went back to bed, as did Xunie. Even though he was exhausted, he couldn't fall asleep again. Every position felt more uncomfortable than the last. The dream still felt fresh in his mind, and wouldn't let go. He ended up kicking off the blanket and jumped down again.

_...Maybe some fresh air might help? I dunno, anything to get my mind off of this fucking nightmare._

He sneaked through the half open door into the living room, where Cary laid on the couch, on her back; belly fully exposed. For a split second, he had the urge to touch her soft looking fur and put his paw through it, just to see what it felt like. But he decided not to, for obvious reasons.

_I hope the door makes no sound when I open it..._

"...Xunie?"

He almost yelped at the voice. How did she hear him? He was perfectly quiet.

"What are you doing…?" Her head peeked over her body.

"I was gonna… get some fresh air. Sorry that I woke you up."

"Mhhh, alright." She laid back down on her pillow. "Make sure the door doesn't close behind you..."

"Ok."

Cold, fresh air entered his body, cooling him. The familiar sounds of unknown nocturnal creatures was the only thing he heard. He wouldn't expect anything otherwise in the middle of the night. Every indoor light was shut off and the street lamps weren't as bright as they were when they had arrived.

He instinctively looked up, finding many more glittering points in the sky as before. They shone so brilliantly. He laid down on the grass next to the walkway to the door, stretched and relaxed. No more nightmares in his mind, no more worries, no more questions unanswered; just him, and the stars. And the unusually bright moon.

Right. His eyes worked differently now. Was he able to see more stars than others, thanks to them?

Remembering the short daydream he had earlier, he tried to replicate it to see if something would happen.

He pointed at the sky. "Look, they're so beautiful!"

He imagined the voice. "_They sure are, sweetie._"

"Can we stay here… huh?" He looked to where he thought he heard a footstep, but no one was there. "Mmh…" He suddenly didn't feel safe anymore and rushed inside.

_Calm down… it was nothing._ He closed the door. _Just your imagination. Nothing's… out there._

He peeked through the curtains of the corridor window, to see an unlit path. He sighed.

_Let's try sleeping again._

—

The next morning, he was the last one to wake up. He luckily dreamt nothing this time. Stretching and groaning, he rubbed his eyes, looked down at his body again, and sighed. _I still can't believe that I'm like this now._ His tail came into view; he looked at the star shaped part at the tip of it. _This is so weird. Oh, it's actually just fur. My god. I thought it split into four at the end there._

Seeing the lack of Kori on the other bed, he decided to jump down and head to the living room, but not before stretching again. Front legs on the ground, hind legs outstretched. _Just like a cat…_

Strange. He didn't hear anyone. Were they outside? No, he would've heard them then.

_Kori said she wanted to visit the museum with me today, right? Then where is she? And Cary? _

Stepping outside with one of his hind feet holding the door open, he could see a couple alien creatures walking around. A long, green snake, looking regal, and a red fox walking on two legs with what looked like a stick in its tail, and ear fur which hadn't been trimmed for decades. _So there _are _creatures with two legs. And some without any. Interesting._ A bipedal, mostly white furred cat walked behind them, swishing its two tails around with a smile on its face. It stopped for a second and glanced over to him. "Morning," she said with a wave. "Hey, I haven't seen you before, pretty sure." The others didn't see him stepping out.

"M-morning. Yeah- I, um, from somewhere else. I'm… with a friend, visiting a friend." He returned the gesture.

"Oh, alright." The cat caught up with the other two.

..._She just HAD to ask._

Further inside the village, there were even more creatures walking around, each as bizarre looking as the next. Different shapes, different sizes, different species. Still no Kori or Cary.

_I'll just go looking for them. Won't be that hard, right? Eheh… I just hope they don't return before I find 'em._

So many new… faces, creatures. Horns, claws, teeth, fur, tails. Some looked at least like some animals he still knew, but some were… something completely new, like this cyan furred… thing, with a red feather on its head and very big, intimidating looking claws, or that green plant, an open flower on its head and big thighs. It looked like it had four yellow feet that looked like… leaves? He wasn't sure.

_On second thought… maybe I'll just stay here and wait for them. But, what to do? There's nothing I can do, is there? ...Ah, a little walk wouldn't hurt, would it?_

He noticed the creature with the red feather standing next to what looked like a kiosk, talking and pointing at something. It took out coins from its bag and received a handful of oran berries. It waved as it went on its way.

Xunie approached the same kiosk, and saw the sign above he wanted to check out yesterday. _Kecleon's? Ok…_

"Welcome," the green chameleon said. "What can I offer you today?"

"Uh," Xunie didn't expect him to say anything, he was just looking up at the sign. "Sorry, I, uh… I'm just looking."

"Oh, not a problem. If you want anything, just tell me. I'll be here all day." the Kecleon said with a smile, leaning against the table in front of him.

_Wait, that kiosk is a part of his house? I thought it was a garage. Oh my god I'm stupid._

"Say, excuse me for being a little personal," the Kecleon spoke up before Xunie could leave, "but I've never seen you around here before. Are you lost?" He held an arm up to his chin.

"Nnno. I'm searching for a friend. Have you seen a Chikorita and a…" _Oh crap, what species is Cary? Kori didn't tell me-_

"A Furret? I did, actually. Not long ago. They went this direction." He pointed deeper into the village.

_Furret. Ok…_ "Oh, thank you." _Wait, didn't Kori tell me it was demeaning to name Pokemon by their species's name? Oops. But he did, too…? So what now?_

Deeper inside, there were all kinds of different buildings in between the similar looking residential houses: more shops, a cafe, _two_ bars, a restaurant, and of course the RT base at the end of the village. It looked more on the modern side of things, with big windows and a conservatory at its side, where he could see a couple more plant creatures… relaxing in it? The building also looked sturdier than any other one he walked by. Through the entrance door—made mostly of glass—he saw a creature buzzing by that looked like a ladybug, with four arms with gloves and two legs with red... shoes?

Kori and Cary weren't in there, either. Where had they gone?

_That must be the RT building for this village. It certainly looks unique. Would they know where they are? Probably not… but I can still ask, right?_

To his surprise, the big glass doors opened automatically. Xunie felt the different atmosphere hitting him. A rough doormat laid at the entrance, very similar to the one Cary had, just bigger. A plain red carpet followed, going all the way to a door at the opposite side, behind which were stairs leading upwards, and an empty counter stood on the left side. The hallway—most of the interior building, really—was made of what looked like recently cleaned tiles. Potted plants were decorating it.

The ladybug creature flew back where it came from, but in a more leisurely pace. He saw Xunie enter the building, and came through the closed door, flying above him.

"Good day, how may- oh," He landed in front of him, "are you the mon that lost its memories?"

_Oh. He's huge. Three times the size..._ "Uh, yeah?" Xunie took a step back. _And… how does he know?_

"Alright, good. Yesterday we got the info that someone got found unconscious and without memories. And there's no Shinx living anywhere in this part of the continent, but I wanted to absolutely make sure it was you she meant."

_So Kori told them about me? Oh god… what are they gonna do to me?_

Xunie was just a little bit anxious. Why would Kori tell what happened to him to what was practically the equivalent of the police here? "Wait, so Kori told you of me? And you-"

The Ledian seemed to notice his sudden nervousness. "Don't worry. You have nothing to be afraid of. We're not gonna lock you in or something. But, please, if you'd be so kind, follow me to my office? I would like to ask you some questions."

The Ledian walked to the door and opened it again for Xunie, and motioned him to follow into the right hall, the carpet continuing behind the door. Seeing a creature three times the height as himself, asking him to come with him, was... unbelievable, actually. Xunie felt more anxious by the second. But this was an RT member that Kori told him about, right? So… there shouldn't be anything to worry about.

"I- uh, was actually just looking for someone…"

His arms dropped down. "Oh. Well, who were you looking for?"

"Probably the same Pokemon who came by yesterday? Who reported the dungeon?"

"Ahh." Xunie's ears perked up, but he was quickly met with disappointment. "No, sorry, I'm afraid I haven't seen her… not like she comes by everyday."

"Ok… thank you anyway."

"But, she told Luuna she would bring you here later today. At least that's what she told me... Anyway, I'd still like you to come with me for a couple minutes. It won't take long." He gestured again. "My name's Naaid, by the way."

_Luuna? _"Who is Luuna? Does she.. work here too?" He wasn't sure if this was a job or a voluntary thing.

"Yes. Luuna is responsible for anyone arriving in the later hours. The night shift, you could say."

"Ah."

After a couple seconds of thinking, Xunie nodded, and reluctantly walked with the giant ladybug.

More doors, labeled with numbers and letters. He couldn't explain it, but this place felt eerily empty, now that he entered the main area of it. Maybe it was just him. Maybe he expected to be more Pokemon in here than just Naaid. Probably just paranoid. He didn't notice his tail hiding away under his belly.

"The earlier we can get this behind us, the better." He stopped at a room labeled 'OFF NL', and opened its door.

This room looked like his office. A deep-red, round carpet in the middle of the room with six black spots, three at each side, resembling the back of a ladybug. A wide table at the opposite side of the room with a wide window behind it, letting in most of the outside light. Two chairs were in front of the table, and copious amounts of drawers inside the walls. Almost the whole left wall was decorated with only drawers—leaving enough room near the ceiling that the Ledian could easily access the highest layer—each labeled with a different number and letter. The right side of the room had a corkboard, filled with pinned up sheets of papers.

He glanced to one of the papers recently added: 'Four found dead, child still missing!'

_Oh my god._ He looked at it with a mixture of disgust and fear. Not even this alien world was free of crime and the lot. _What in the..._

"Please, take a seat." The Ledian said, snapping him back to reality. Naaid's wings had stopped buzzing and he sat down into his chair, gesturing to one of the two other 'chairs'. They looked a little… on the wider side. There was enough space for five Xunies to sit down.

_...Right. Different species of Pokemon._ He tried not to think of the paper.

"Alright," he begun as Xunie sat down, tail hanging behind him. "You're probably wondering why I dragged you in here."

"...Yeah."

"To put it simply, you're not the only one this happened to."

"Wh- ...what?" _Are there other humans?_ "I'm not alone?"

"Well, it's still a very rare occurrence. What worries all of us is that it's been picking up the last couple months."

_Oh… wow._

"And it's still a complete mystery as to how this is happening." Naaid leaned against his four arms on the table, looking at a paper. "With you… being the most unique out of all of them." He started smiling a bit. "Claiming to be human."

Xunie gasped. _So she-_ "So… she told you? Why…? I thought..."

Naaid's smile didn't falter. "She told Luuna, and she told me. If you think this is a big deal, you'd be right. Humans have been extinct for tens of thousands of years, maybe more. It's just impossible."

"And you… think I tell the truth? You, as a…"

His smile disappeared as he shook his head. "No. I don't."

"Oh. Then… why did you say this?" He turned his head slightly. "The 'me claiming to be human'."

"The Chikorita, that found you. She seems oddly convinced that you tell the absolute truth… which I don't understand. As far as I know you haven't shown any real evidence of you being... an extinct species," he said bluntly. "But," he raised one of his arms, "with the increasing amounts of spatial anomalies appearing left and right, your claim isn't… outside the realm of possibilities. I still don't completely believe it, but with all these crazy things happening… it's not out of the question that you _could_ be."

"Wait, so, I'm the only one that's saying I was human? What about all the others you told me just now?"

"They just lost their memories. Even to the point that they couldn't even name a single species. You probably don't even know what I am, a Ledian."

_Ledian._ Xunie nodded in understanding. "Ok."

"The Chikorita also told us you were surrounded by ash, before she found you. Is that right?"

He nodded again. "Though I didn't see it myself. She just told me that she had."

"I see." Naaid leaned back onto his chair, careful of his wings. "And, one more thing. You were with her the entire time, so can you tell me your perspective of this: we know there was a dungeon standing in your way. Can you tell me if the list of inhabitants is correct?"

He listed every creature Xunie had met, with a slight shudder when he mentioned Taillow. There was a new one: Metapod.

"I'm… not sure if a Metapod was in there. I didn't see one."

"Hmm. You sure? Green cocoon, hanging from the ceiling?"

"Ohh, wait, that was a Metapod? I thought it was just a cocoon." _Cocoons are Pokemon, too?_

"Yeah, a Metapod." He looked down at the paper, "Alright, what exactly happened at the second floor of the dungeon?"

"Floor? Oh, yeah, uh… it was weird. Like, you could walk into a hallway and it kept looping to the right, for example."

"Yes, that's the non euclidean quirk. Or 'spatial quirk', as some like to call it. The third dungeon in existence that has this. And what happened in that floor?"

_Oh wow. Third in existence? How many dungeons are out there? Doesn't look like that many… _"We… fought a Taillow."

"Continue."

"And, I had… struck it."

"Yes, and after that?"

"It…"

"Stood back up again and pinned you down."

"...Yeah."

Naaid stood up and walked around the table towards Xunie, all the while staring down at him. "This is very crucial news. Any dead creature is **not **supposed to come alive again. It goes against nature itself. Never in my life have I heard of something so unbelievable. The Chikorita told us that it attacked you and managed to slam you against the opposite wall. Please. Tell me _everything_." He slowly flew back to his chair. "Please do not leave out any details."

"Alright…" Xunie told him about the encounter. About how it had managed to talk to him. How he had understood the Taillow.

"Hold on. It was talking? To you?" He glanced over the paper again, grumbling afterwards.

"Yeah, it said like-"

"No." He shook his head. "That is utterly impossible. Since I joined this Troop, there had been zero cases of any talking ferals in dungeons."

"But, it did! I swear! It had this weird voice, like it was gurgling on something… and it came from everywhere!"

"From everywhere, you say…" Naaid scribbled something on it, even underlining it. How he could hold that pencil was beyond the Shinx.

"I don't know how to describe it otherwise…"

"Did it move its beak?"

"Huh? No, it didn't."

"Are you absolutely sure it didn't?"

He nodded.

Naaid added something to the scribble he just underlined. What was he writing on that, anyway?

"Alright. Apologies. Please continue."

He continued with how it moved around like it had been taken over by something. That it was seemingly immune to his panicked slashing.

Naaid listened intently, occasionally scribbling down on his paper again. "Is that everything?"

"Yes. Really."

"Hmhmm. Thank you. As much as I don't want to believe that there are talking ferals roaming around, that can come back from the dead, I cannot simply ignore it." He snickered. "You know what's funny? Your friend has a map, right?"

"Uh, yeah, what about it?"

"When did she get hers?"

"I'm… not sure, actually."

"The most up-to-date ones were published two days ago."

"Oh." _...And?_

"Well, we're just gonna tell everyone that they have to add that dungeon themselves. To publish another set of maps right now would be a waste. But, I digress. Thank you for reporting your side of this." He glanced down at his paper again. "That would be all."

He nodded again and jumped off of the biggest chair he has ever seen. Before walking out the door, he looked back at the Ledian. "And… what are you gonna do now?"

"Paperwork, and then send someone to investigate this."

"Oh, ok. Yeah. Uhm, goodbye, Naaid."

"Take care."

…

Naaid sat still in his office chair, one hand on his head, preventing it from falling onto the table. The rest were sprawled on it, with one holding the paper.

With yet another hand, he grabbed something from under the table. A round object with a tiny lamp, blinking green.

He grumbled. "Luuna is my mate."

The light instantly turned red, and after a couple seconds, it blinked green again.

"...I can't believe it."

He focused on the paper again, at the one thing he had marked several times.

'Psychic'

V

'Communication with fer. Taillow.'

' "How are you here" '

The Ledian kept grumbling in disbelief to himself. The Chikorita told his coworker about this bizarre feral, as did the Shinx. Both said the exact same story. Both said the truth. How. How could this be real?

"Stupid. Stupid things."

One of the rarest quirks. It had three floors, yet had that very unique quirk to it. "It just can't be." This was exclusive to the two most dangerous dungeons. It didn't make any sense that this baby dungeon had...

"Tsk. Like they ever made any sense to begin with." He sighed. "What an interesting encounter..."


	5. Chapter 5

**Café Sunflora**

Kori and Cary were idly chatting, as they waited for their morning drinks to arrive. They sat opposite to each other, on a pillow on the ground. Their table was fixed to the wall, and via a button on the underside of it they could freely choose its height. It had simple decorations, such as a small flower pot next to the wall, and a white tablecloth, barely reaching the outer edges.

Cary had to roll up and lay her head on her back, so that she could be at the same height as Kori and also take up as little space as possible.

The café was decently filled with various types of Pokemon, and was designed for almost every size. On the left side—where the two friends sat—were the smaller tables, perfect for quadrupled and shorter bipeds. In the middle were 'normal' sized tables and chairs, mainly for human sized bipeds. The right had only four seats, for the huge, in comparison to the ten at the left and fourteen in the middle.

The walls and ground were simple carved wood, with the floor looking scratched and clawed in almost every spot, indicating the many Pokemon that had already walked on it, and the walls with pictures of the previous owners, or with random Pokemon acting for the camera, awards and certificates for the quality of their food and drinks.

The main source of light at this time of day was the sun, as it shone between two opened curtains. The building was designed so that the morning sun would provide the interior with enough light that they wouldn't need the various ceiling or wall lights at this time of day.

Cary noticed a Buizel holding a silver plate with presumably their two drinks on them. It had a yellow sunflower looking hat, with a nameplate on it, and an orange tie which reached down to its belly with a picture of a Sunflora's head, smiling. "Oh, hey, I think they're here."

"Huh?" She turned around, just as the waiter arrived at their table. "Ah."

"Pecha and Lum tea?" The Buizel asked, holding down the plate for them to see.

"Yes," they both said.

"Here you go, anything else?"

"No, we're fine," answered Kori.

He responded with a quick "Alright," and went back behind the counter again.

"Ah, Lum tea, huh?" said Kori. "Wanna try something different today, Cary?"

"Actually, this might be my new favourite flavour. It's sweet, but like the perfect amount, and the sprinkles of sourness mix perfectly together with the whiff of bitterness of the tea."

"Wow. Getting real professional here," Kori let out a quick laugh, as she took her way of a sip from the small bowl. "Well, I like it simple."

"I can see that." Cary also drank from hers. "Mh, Kori. I'd wanna ask you more about the Shinx you found yesterday, but you don't really know him all that well, right? Barely more than I do, even."

"Yeah, why're you asking?"

"Cause I wanna find out more about his situation. You know, where he came from, and all that stuff. It's just… interesting, I guess? Nothing ever happens in this village here, and it's getting boring, you know? They don't even have the full RT troop at the same time in the building anymore, most of the time I only see the Ledian in there doing all the work. Poor guy."

"Yeah… I can imagine. Why don't you come to my place for a change? We could watch or do some sparrings at the grounds, or..."

"I'd… rather avoid going through that dungeon. Sorry."

"Maybe you could fly with a drifloon, then? Shouldn't be _that_ expensive, for the short way. Maybe we can both fly in there and share the costs?"

"Mhh," she slightly turned her head to the side, "that could work, yeah."

They both continued drinking from their tea.

"Do you think Xunie's up already?" asked Cary.

"Probably."

...

_I found the museum, but not them. ...Maybe they're already home?_

In front of him was a marbled building, with pillars protruding out of the already higher ground this museum was on. They were supporting part of the extended roof above.

Not many Pokemon were near it, maybe because it wasn't open yet, or nobody was interested in it. Maybe they'd seen everything it had to offer, or just weren't interested in history altogether?

_Let's go back to Cary's house. There's nothing else to do, is there? Except waiting for Kori._

After arriving back at her home, he noticed that the door was closed, and he couldn't open it. Not because he wasn't able to reach, but because it was locked.

_Oh goddammit. _He sighed. _That's why she told me to keep the door open last night._

Knocking. Maybe they _were_ home already. No response.

_Guess I'll have to wait._ He sat down next to the path leading up to the door.

Various types of Pokemon walked by him, some glancing over to him, some waving their 'hello', and others didn't pay him any mind. It was getting boring really quick.

At least the weather was nice. Calm breeze, sun was shining, not a cloud in sight still. What else could you want?

Eventually, he laid down on his belly, resting his head over his left leg. It didn't take long until this position was getting uncomfortable, so he turned and laid on his sides, letting his legs relax in the warm grass. He didn't know why, but the way the sun was warming his body made him more and more tired the longer he laid like this.

He dozed off into a dreamless sleep after some time.

**—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—**

**?**

_What have I done…?_

The Minccino ran through the thick forest surrounding his village. He normally wasn't allowed to venture this far out, not even with his family and/or the neighbours. He was told to never do so. Why? He didn't know. He never questioned the adults. They were always right.

_What have I done…?!_

He didn't know what would await him deeper inside. Monsters? Creatures of the night? A one-way trip to the Underworld, where Giratina would wait? Would Yveltal pick him up, with an ear deafening screech?

_...Chyla… Mother..._

His vision shifted back inside his old cottage, before everything happened. A happy family of Minccino and Cinccino, living in a tiny community deep in the forest, isolated from the rest of the world.

Standing concerned in front of his family, two Cinccino, his parents, and two other Minccino, his siblings, looking back at him equally worried. The evening sun was shining through the hole in the wall, acting as a glassless window. Their home didn't have very much in terms of furniture, except for a table, and makeshift beds made of oran leaves and hay.

His mother was the first one to ask. "What is it that you have to show us so suddenly, Cino?"

"It's something really strange." Cino said, worried about their reactions to his new obscure ability. All the eyes staring at him made something in him stir. He tried to ignore it.

"Tell us already!" Cilo, his sister, pouted.

"Yes," Clip, his brother, added, "come on. We don't have all day."

"Alright, uhm… do you remember the rock I found a few moons ago?"

"The one you and Tary found?" His father, Chedoro, grumbled.

Cino hesitated. "...Yes. This one. But… that stone was somehow special. It…" he thought for a second, "...gave me something. Something… very scary, but also fascinating! I could be like my friend!"

Everyone was confused. His mother was very serious all of a sudden. "What… did it give you?"

Cino suddenly regretted telling them. He took a step back and stuttered, "It- it, uh…" How would they react? His heart pounded faster and faster.

"You're gonna tell us," Chedoro commanded, "or we drop this and go to sleep."

"Yes, Cino," Cilo said, "what's with you?"

"Too scared to tell us, or what?" Clip added. "What did you do this time?"

"Alright, alright," Cino said, "I'll… you'll see what it did."

...His vision faded back to the present, zooming past trees and bushes. His back and shoulders ached and burned, like someone had repeatedly hit him with a blaze kick. His vision blurred by the tears of anger and grief. But he couldn't stop. He never wanted to stop. He just wanted to keep running forever.

He did not dare to look back.

_Tary… Everyone… I can't…_

The forest seemed to be going on infinitely, like it was trapping him in it, as his eternal punishment. Was he even making progress? He wasn't paying attention. He just knew that he had to get away, and to never return.

_Why did I show them?!_

His mind scrambled with the events that had happened just now, and his discovery not too long ago. This… thing, that had invaded his dreams. Blue and red. All of them were only or mostly in blue and red. And with it, the worst nightmares he ever had.

One of them just had come true.

_Curse Giratina… curse- _"_**AHH!**_"

He let out an ear deafening scream as his back spasmed, turning hotter and hotter, until it felt like it could burn anything that dared to touch it. The overwhelming pain made him jerk and collapse to the ground.

His back felt like it split open, releasing the demon that was Giratina onto this world.

As sudden as the pain came, it disappeared. The Minccino laid there, hyperventilating, grasping for cold air and clutched a tuft of grass.

_Please… make it stop… I can't take it anymore..._

With his free hand, he tried to reach for one of the spots with missing fur, only to almost burn his paw on it. How was this possible?

_So hot..._

With shaky movements, he struggled to stand back up. The temptation of leaning against a tree and taking a break was enormous, but he had to keep running like Yveltal was chasing him.

Ever since he found that rock... everything had gone downhill rapidly.

_It hurts so much..._

He thought he had reached the bottom.

_Arceus, forgive me…_

Finally, after what felt like days of fleeing, he saw the end of the forest. A giant meadow of yellow flowers, snowy mountains in the distance, and clouds above him that indicated rain. The wind picked up, blowing chilly air around him as he continued running.

He wished that this could've never happened. That he never found this rock. That he had never gotten these wretched powers.

He wished he would forget.

**—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—**

"...Xunie?" A familiar voice accompanied with laughter entered his ears, ripping him out of his nap. Kori snickered.

"Huh? Wha- h…?" He frantically looked around with half open eyes, momentarily blinded by the harsh light. He saw Kori and Cary looking down at him, smiles on their faces. She also had a bag, similar to Kori's, slouched over her neck.

Cary managed to stifle her laughter. "Why are you sleeping in front of my home?"

He laughed nervously, getting up into a sitting position and started stretching. "I… went for a walk and locked myself out, I guess? I didn't think about that when I left… may have been better this way, I don't know how long I was away."

"It was better, yeah. I really don't want anyone seeing the front door open and entering my home. You never know these days."

"At least you're safe." Kori added. "Didn't want you to fall over and get hurt somewhere."

"Ha ha," he said sarcastically. "Where were you two, anyway?"

"At the café."

_...Of course the only place I didn't search. Excluding the two bars._ He mentally facepalmed at that.

"We didn't want to wake you up." Cary said. "Ok, Kori wanted to, but I decided against it. So we just let you sleep. And... also kinda forgot the time. It's almost noon." She headed towards the door and opened it.

"Oh! Xunie," Kori remembered, "while I was at the RT yesterday, I told them I would take you with me tomorrow, which is today. For… confirmation to what I told them, I guess? It's nothing bad, they're just gonna ask you some questions."

"Yeah, about that… I kinda already went there. Accidentally."

"You did? Oh. Wait, accidentally? How?"

"I… was walking around the RT building and entered it, because, you know, I was curious. A… Ledian, was it? He saw me strolling around the entrance and recognised me as the Shinx you told… Luuna about yesterday. And then he questioned me."

"Luuna? Oh, you mean the Houndoom. Right, it's settled then. After lunch, we'll head to the museum, as promised."

He sighed. "Yeah, I really hope this'll help me, but I doubt that…"

The word 'lunch' awoke the grumbling beast that was Xunie's stomach. He just now realized he hadn't eaten anything since the apple back in the dungeon. That also made him wonder what kind of food they had in this world. It couldn't have been just plant based, right? There had to be meat, and… products like milk.

Or maybe not. He'd find out soon enough.

"Oh, don't be such a downer. It's worth a try, right?"

The three entered the house, and Cary was already looking through the refrigerator, humming a random melody.

"I guess, yeah."

**—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—**

**Nhilo Village**

The Minccino hurried over the damp cobblestone path, the houses next to him a mere blur. His throat rasping from every breath, his arms and legs burning from all the exhaustion, even with all the rain hitting his body. Yet he didn't stop. He couldn't yet. Not after what he had done. Not after the lord of the Underground gifted him powers far beyond what should've been ever granted to mortals.

"Giratina… execute him… for this curse… he gave me." His limbs felt like they were turning into lead, getting heavier with every step he took. The combo of being drenched and covered in fur didn't help him, either.

"Why me...? Why?" His tears were invisible in the rain.

His limbs finally gave up, letting him fall partly into a puddle in the stone. He tried standing up again, to no avail. They were too weak to keep him going.

"No… no no no! I have to- I have to get-"

He couldn't continue. He let his head slump to the ground.

The rain continued to pelt down on him, further humiliating him of this defeat.

A nearby Dewott saw his struggles and she approached to help. "Hey, is everything alright? What happened?"

The Minccino tensed up and tried to keep his distance with her. All he could do was turn his body onto his belly. The rain seemed to sizzle away when it hit a certain spot on his back… "No… stay away from me…" His raspy voice barely hearable, his tail flailed around to keep her away, splashing a bit of rain her way.

"My goodness," she moved around in place, unsure what to do, looking into the direction she saw him coming from, where he would've gone, and everywhere in between. Nothing, except for a Grovyle quickly approaching from outside the village. He had a bag with a badge tucked on it, a dark blue pearl decorating most of the front.

He saw the almost unconscious Minccino and turned towards the Dewott. "What happened?"

"Oh, oh, Green, good thing you're here, uh, he just… came out of nowhere, out of breath, and… and collapsed on the ground. I don't know who he is or where he came from..."

"Alright, calm down, please. I'll take care of this." The Grovyle looked him over for any injuries. The Minccino's back looked swollen—most likely from all the running—and his entire body was drenched from the rain. Two spots near his shoulders caught his interest: they looked more dry than the rest of his back. The fur surrounding the spots were… black. The tips were more gray, like someone strewed ash on it. "...Hm." When he tried to reach out one of his arms towards it, even hovering above one of the spots, he could feel it was searing hot somehow. "How very strange…" he whispered to himself.

He noticed him struggling to get up to his legs again, and tried talking to him as soothingly as he could after clearing his throat, "Please, remain calm. You have nothing to worry about." He kneeled down and showed his badge. "I'm from the RT, and I am here to help you."

The Minccino didn't calm down. Running away was the only option that went through his head at this moment. He had to. For his and everyone else's safety. His limbs had already given up, lying limp on the ground, his torso rapidly going up and down from the heavy breaths. "No… don't…" His heart felt like it was going to burst out.

"Whatever it was you were running from, it's gone. You're safe now. We will make sure that nothing happens to you." He kept trying. "I will bring you to our base, where you will get medical treatment."

The Minccino didn't reply nor struggle against the Grovyle carefully picking him up (not like he could), he took great care not to touch his back. _Good, he doesn't seem to be hurt, or else he would have protested._ He repeated, "You're safe here. We'll take care of you, and get you back in shape." He turned to the Dewott, nodding. "I'll take care of him. Have a nice day."

She clasped her tiny hands together, with a gleam in her oval eyes. "Oh, thank you, Green. What would we do without you four?"

"We're just doing our jobs." And with a nod, he carefully made his way towards their base of the village.

**—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—**

The interior was as marvellous looking as the outside: a tiled floor so clean, he could see himself mirrored in it, although blurred from the rough texture. The walls decorated with more marbled pillars, holding everything together.

"This museum was designed after what the humans called Parthenon, a very ancient building from a faraway part of the world," their guide, a Lopunny, told the two, and a couple others in their group. Her voice sounded monotone, as if she had to tell the same thing for the thousandth time. "The Parthenon is said to have been built for a goddess of the humans, Athena, the personification of wisdom, handicraft and warfare."

Kori poked Xunie, and whispered, "Hey, is this true?"

"Uh- I dunno!" He whispered back. "I told you I wouldn't know everything."

"So they can just say anything and they'll think it really happened?"

The guide continued talking about something, but they weren't listening. "Kori, we're not here to correct them—we're here to help me get my memories back!"

"Oh, right. Well, did it help?"

"No. Not yet. I don't even know what a 'Parthon' is. Never heard of it."

"Wait, really? So it _is_ made up?" She smiled, clearly joking.

He sighed. "Be quiet, Kori."

"What? It could be."

"You think they're telling wrong information about history?"

"Goodness, Xunie, it was just a little joke."

Another sigh. "Yeah, I- I know. But still."

To Xunie's dismay, their visit was in vain. Nothing the guide told them or what they had seen in there helped his memories along. The visit confused the Shinx even more, with things he didn't even know they had made. It was like this was a totally different culture of humanity than what he used to live in.

Of course, he was just theorising. There might still be the tiniest of possibilities that all this was just made up. He highly doubted that, though.

The two were descending the couple marble stairs leading to the entrance and were discussing what to do for the rest of the day. The event from yesterday came to mind.

"Alright, I've got another idea. What did you do yesterday that made you remember something? Look at the sky?"

"I think so, yeah. But I also tried that again last night, I went outside for a minute or two. It didn't work."

"Why only for so short? Maybe you have to look at the stars for longer. Focus on them, watch them glitter, draw lines and make figures, or whatever."

"Because… I thought someone, or something, was walking towards me. I didn't see anything, but I could hear it. ...so I got inside again." _Like the scaredy-cat I am. Maybe the dream?_

"You were probably still paranoid from the dream you had."

_Honestly, I don't really know._ He nodded. "Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. We could try that later." _If you joined me, I'll probably feel safer._

Kori stopped walking. "Hey, Xunie?"

"Hm?"

"You know what? I'll join you, and then you can just concentrate on the stars. No need to think about anyone sneaking up on you when I'm there."

That took him by surprise. He couldn't explain it, but he felt relieved. To have met someone willing to be so helpful to someone who shouldn't even exist in the first place, to whom she shouldn't even have met, someone who she had known for merely a day. Even if it's just being next to him for his sake. He couldn't help himself, and a smile formed on his face. "My god… uh, thank you, Kori."

"It's… not a big deal, really. You could've just asked me yesterday to come outside with you."

"I… You were asleep again when I came back inside, and I didn't want to wake you up and be a nuisance just because I _thought_ I heard something outside."

"You could've just asked _before_ going out, Xunie. I'm not gonna eat you for asking." She laughed.

"Sure, but I couldn't have known that someone would sneak up on me."

"...That's true. Anyway, let's see if that'll help."

**—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—**

The Minccino laid still, his body moving up and down from the now slightly calmer breaths. He laid in a small infirmary with two beds with completely white sheets. The walls were tapestried with a beautiful landscape of various flowers, with the sun coming up between two trees as if they were holding the giant ball of fire. A snow covered mountain on both sides, making the wall almost seem symmetrical, when excluding the bed of flowers.

A big window was right next to his bed, where he could see a part of the town he found himself in. The houses looked completely different than those back home. They were mainly made of bricks, and had proper windows as this building had, and roofs with chimneys. The rain continued to pelt on the glass pane separating him with the outside world, making a rather soothing sound. He, of course, was not. He had reluctantly decided to stay, even though he or anyone else could get in serious danger.

Not like he could get any farther with his body protesting against every move he did.

He was laying on his belly, as his back continued to burn like a Typhlosion's. Not physically, but just as searing hot. Slight heat lines were visible above the spots, like an asphalt street in the summer. Muscles tensed and relaxed without rhyme or reason. He couldn't explain it. He didn't even feel it, except when he touched it. He thought he was getting possessed, something wanted to enter his body and control it...

Any attempt to cool it down was of no use. No cold water, no bags of ice, or even an Amaura willing to help couldn't do anything. It continued to burn defiantly.

While this village's RT pondered about this impossible Minccino, he clutched the pillow as best as he could, avoiding the wet spots he had made with his tears.

_Chyla…_ _Chedo..._

He could still see the faces of the two Cinccino, full of shock and dread. He thought he could've trusted them with this.

...There was no one that he could've trusted. He should've known. This wasn't something he, or any living mortal should be capable of. He might as well be an underling of Giratina already.

_Cilo, Clip…_

His two siblings, crying and screaming in terror, as he unleashed calamity upon his family. The curse of Giratina, as he called it. Why was _he_ cursed? What did he do wrong? Had this rock something to do with it? The one he found a couple days prior with his best friend?

That rock…

…

"_Safe spot!"_

"_Hey, that's unfair! I can't climb!"_

"_That's why it's my safe spot!"_

_The Minccino and a Torchic were playing a round of catch, as they usually did after lunch. Even though the Minccino had the advantage of climbing up trees, the Torchic was still able to easily catch him on the ground with his abnormal speed._

"_And what if I jump?"_

_This Torchic was no ordinary Pokemon. Due to some mysterious and absurd reasons, he was born as a water/fire type. His parents had always been a little on the edge, ever since he was in his egg. It wasn't its normal beige and orange speckled colors, but instead had a more bluish-red hue to it. It almost looked purple because of it._

"_You can't jump that high."_

_Everyone was immediately present when he was about to hatch, and to all of their surprise, his big feathers on his head and his neck tuft were orange, and the rest of his body was yellow, instead of the other way around. They later found out about his unique typing. In place of his first ember, came a water gun. And after the water gun came a blue ember. Everyone was dumbstruck, called it a blessing of Arceus. A wonderchild. 'Hail Xerneas, for birthing this child upon our blessed earth.'_

"_Wanna bet?"_

_Later still, they found out that he surpassed his bigger brother, already a Combusken, in physical strength and speed. Even his parents were no match for him, as they found out. _

"_I told you, you can't reach!"_

_He was seen as a miracle by everyone._

"_Then how about this?"_

_The Torchic sprayed a water gun at the Minccino, and he almost fell down._

"_Aah!"_

"_Got you, your turn!"_

"_Hey that doesn't count!"_

"_Yeah, it does- huh?" He skidded to a halt and looked into a random direction._

_The Minccino used this chance to surprise his friend from behind. He climbed down the tree, and with a swift touch, "Catch!" He was about to run into the other direction, but noticed his friend wasn't chasing him. "Huh? Hey, something wrong?"_

_The Torchic said nothing, and continued staring. It was as if something got him in a trance._

"_What's… what's wrong?"_

_Still no answer. Instead, he strolled towards the unknown thing that stole all of his attention. The Minccino followed him, of course. He stood in front for a brief moment, confused, before getting pushed away effortlessly._

_For a split second when his body touched his yellow feathers, he felt something strange. Like his friends body was shaking vigorously. Not from fear, but from something else. This wasn't normal, even for him. He left visible scratch marks in the part of the tree that was just barely above the earth._

_The Torchic's eyes were focused on something. The Minccino had never seen such dilated eyes before._

_He was thinking about getting the adults to help him, but who knows where his friend would've gone when they arrived here? How far was he gonna walk for? He thought he was gonna rip out trees if they got in his way._

"_Tary, please, what's going on?"_

_Nothing. Not even a slight hint of him getting to him. As if he didn't hear the Minccino's question at all._

"_...You're scaring me. Stop!"_

_Finally, Tary stopped, and looked at the ground, burning a hole in it with only his eyes. The Minccino saw what made his friend unresponsive._

_A rock, he thought._

_The texture, shape, and color were definitely not that of a rock's. It was too smooth, too clean, too… monotonically dark gray. He felt that something was… not right. He could've sworn that a red light escaped it just then. To say that he was even more confused would've been an understatement._

"_A rock? Tary, why were you…"_

_Tary turned his head towards his friend. Scared._

"_Who was talking to me?"_

"_...What? I was talking to you the entire time! You scared me!"_

"_No, no. Someone else was talking to me, saying to go here… and I couldn't stop… I don't know who… was." Tary's face was pleading for help from whatever it was that made him come here. "It said you should touch it."_

"_Touch it? Touch the rock?" He felt uneasy. "Why?"_

"_How would I know?"_

"_What if I don't?"_

_Tary didn't move for a moment, but his eyes dilated up again and stared a hole into the Minccino. He turned towards him._

"_Wha- Tary?" The Minccino was backing up as he was getting closer. "What are you doing?! What's with you?"_

_The Torchic managed to bite him at his ear with his beak, making him yelp. Yet again he felt the vibrations passing through his body._

"_OW! OWW! STOP!"_

_He tried to make him let go, but the Torchic yanked him towards the rock, overshooting by a long shot and almost ripping out a part of his ear. He crashed onto the ground, and with a roll, into a tree, leaves rustling. He held his injured ear with his paws, looking it over. It still felt like he was holding onto it._

"_Tary?! What in Gira's name are you doing?!" He screamed, partly in fear and shock. Why was he suddenly so violent? He would never-_

_Tary sprinted towards him at abnormal speeds. He again bit him on his ear, vibrations returning, this time tugging him to presumably where that rock laid. The Minccino tried everything he could to make him let go, but to no avail._

_He screamed, yet nobody heard him._

_He cried for help, but nobody would come._

"_Tary! Why are you doing this?!" No answer. He struggled. "Please, stop this! Why?!"_

_They finally arrived._

_"Wh- what are you-!"_

_Tary lifted his head at an angle, and..._

_"No no no don't! Don't-!"_

_...slammed his best friend onto the rock without hesitation._

_The tip of the rock penetrated the Minccino's torso. His body and limbs twitched as he gurgled and spat out blood._

_The gurgling muffled his screams. He felt himself getting weaker by the second. Excruciating pain coursed through his body, but he was too weak to properly scream._

_He looked over to what should've been his best friend, only for him to see the expressionless face of a murderer, looking down at him. His eyes were already as wet as the ocean, and the last thing he'd see and think before slipping away._

_The rock slowly crystallized where it protruded out of his body, red light flowing through the tiny crystals as they spread around his wound, growing bigger._

_Voices echoed through the silenced forest, _"_**I'm sorry, Cino. It's the only way."**_

…!

The Minccino clutched his chest, after slipping away for a second. He was still in the same room. The rain still pelting on the window, his heart pounding. A light headache, too.

_...These nightmares... They'll never end, will they?_ His ear was fine, as he noticed.

His legs felt numb. Did they fall asleep, too?

Wait, was he laying on his back? ...No, because the bed should've been burnt… and himself as well.

But it was perfectly fine. No burn or scorch marks, not even a single blackened spot on it anywhere.

He relaxed and slumped back onto the mattress. Bad idea. Pain shot up into his body, making him sharply inhale through clenched teeth.

"Owww. Huh?" He stopped, looked around and pushed himself onto the pillow behind him. "What…" His voice sounded deeper, had more collected thoughts. He felt calm. What happened while he was asleep?

A paw ran down his torso to his belly, through the gray fur. Sure, he was still a Minccino, like he had always been, but… he also felt older. More mature. If it weren't for his aching limbs, he would've made a run for it again.

...Why was he running again? He couldn't remember. His thoughts were preoccupied with questions.

"What is happening to me…? Ugh, my back feels so stiff..." He tried to stretch left and right, but the stiffness wouldn't go away. His shoulders were killing him, shooting even more pain than they had already been. He tried to shrug it off, but they wouldn't stop. The muscles tensed up, and he instinctively expected a cramp, but no extra pain came.

He held a paw at the spot where his muscles were stiffening up, and tried to massage them. To his surprise and shock, it pressed against his bones more and more. A quiet crack could be heard, but nothing came of it. A small moment of shock, though he still felt relatively fine. It stopped tensing after that, and tried to roll his shoulders. Everything was fine.

The Minccino looked around again. Why had he been running? This popped into his head again and again, and it didn't make any sense. What was he fleeing from? He should've gone home. Was he even fleeing? His family was probably waiting for him already, starting to worry of his whereabouts. How long had he been gone?

"No, no... " Where was home, anyway? Did he have family? Was he really fleeing from something? "This isn't right… Something's wrong with me. Why can't I remember?"

The door to his infirmary opened, ripping him away from his thoughts and monologue, and in peeked the Grovyle that found him on the streets, head-leaf moving forward with his motion. "Ah, good, you're awake." He entered the room and quietly closed the door behind him. "I was checking on you earlier and saw that you were sleeping. Didn't want to bother you." He sat next to the Minccino's bed, and moved a nearby chair so he was directly looking towards the Minccino. "I see your back stopped… burning."

"...Yeah."

"Do you mind me asking you a couple questions?" He calmly asked, leaning forward and holding himself on his legs.

"Do I have a choice?"

Green took a second to answer. "Of course you have. If you're too uncomfortable to answer, you're allowed to say so."

The Minccino sighed. "Alright. Ask."

**—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—****—**

Xunie was laying on the same spot he had the day before: next to the entryway to Cary's home, with Kori next to him. The stars shone brilliantly, scattered across the night sky. Some might say they were even twinkling tonight, as the full moon brightened the land with its weak, yet noticeable glow. Some clouds had formed on the horizon during the day, but were mere specks on the giant black sky; the stars had no problem shining through between them.

Creatures of the night roamed the lands surrounding the village, cricking and hooing every so often. A calm and refreshing breeze blew over the two, bringing in the cool night's air after a hot and sunny day.

These were seemingly perfect conditions to try out the idea that Kori had told him. Nothing would hinder the Shinx to concentrate, and hopefully he could get a hint of a memory of his, on how or why he ended up in here.

Seemingly coming back to life, waking up in front of an alien creature. It was the shock of his life, and for the first couple minutes, he wanted nothing more than going back home, wherever that might've been. Nothing more than a simple answer to his impossible question.

He still wasn't completely fond of his new body, but for the most part had found a pretty good place in this world. Everyone was nice, Kori had been his go-to guide for as long as he can remember, and as dumb as his questions may have been, she answered them without commenting over that, even on the ones that the Shinx was considering not asking (because of the sheer stupidity), but still did.

Cary also was very pleasant to be around. He initially thought that the two were siblings, but questioned that thought. How could two different species be siblings? That just didn't make any sense. He then remembered that almost nothing made sense here, so this might've been a possibility.

It turned out that they were just best friends, and that they knew each other from when they were children. Why they weren't living in the same village was beyond him.

Alas, here he was now, staring up into the skies, trying to concentrate on them. Had he been concentrating as the memory showed up, or was he zoning out? He wasn't quite sure.

"And?" Kori's voice broke through the half-silence. "You gotten anything yet?"

He breathed in deeply before answering. "Not yet. I'll tell you when."

"Alright. Any noises yet?"

"...No."

Concentrating didn't seem to work. Maybe it was the same thing as trying to sleep? The harder someone tried, the harder it'd get? He gave it a shot and just relaxed his body, put his legs on the ground, stretched once, and stared at a random star in the sky.

He noticed he was anxious, for some reason. His heartbeat was accelerating rapidly, though he was doing nothing that could cause that. _Deep breaths,_ he thought, _calm down. There's nothing to worry about_. _Kori's right here, next to you._ It didn't help as much as he'd hoped.

Tried as he could, he wasn't going to calm down that easily. Was it the thought that he might get his memories back that made him so nervous? Was it the mysterious noise he heard last night? What if it came back? He guessed it was the first one, but the second could also be the reason. Probably both, even.

The thought of it appearing again made him look around, but after seeing nothing, he relaxed a little. Kori seemed to have noticed his nervousness.

"Is… everything ok?"

He turned to her, and saw that she had been looking at him. Her curious, yet worried eyes seemed to glitter in the starlight, reflecting a tiny bit of the sky in them. "Uh, yeah, yeah. Everything's fine. I just can't seem to concentrate…" Xunie sighed.

"Come on," she shifted her neck upwards, one leg over the other, "you can tell me. I noticed you were nervous all of a sudden. Was it the noise?"

"No, no. It wasn't. It's just... " He breathed in deeply, "Yeah, ok, I am a little nervous, but I don't know why. There's just no reason for me to be. I shouldn't be, but yet... I- I keep thinking about if this will really get me my memories back or not, and… and what if it doesn't… and they're lost forever?"

"Xunie." Her serious yet smooth voice interrupted his. She motioned her leg up and down, "Calm down. You shouldn't freak out like that." Kori was unsure if this would help him, but she tried anyway. "There's no good reason for you to think like that, either. Don't… just assume the worst. Have a little more faith."

He opened his mouth, but didn't say anything. Looking at a random spot in front of Kori, he sighed. She was right. He was focusing too much on the negatives. Such an unnecessary way of bringing the mood down.

"You're right, Kori. I… don't know what I was thinking. Sorry."

"Don't be. It's ok."

He held the slightest hint of a smile on his face, and half turned towards the sky, half still looking at Kori.

"Everything's gonna be ok. Don't worry about anything, you have all the time in the world. You're welcome to stay as long as you like at my home. I'm not gonna stop trying to help you get over this."

His smile grew bigger as he went back at looking up.

"And when you eventually get them back, we will find out the reason why you're here. There has to be one, right? Doesn't matter how long it'll take."

A warm and fuzzy feeling flowed through his body, making his eyes heavy.

Kori shifted in place, and laid down her head. "You know, everyone says that humans were inherently bad creatures. Some of them, at least. They'd do terrible things to themselves and the world they were living in. But you… I'm happy that we got one of the good ones. Even though I don't see the reason as to why someone would make the effort and… just kidnap you from wherever you're from, so to say.

"Where _are_ you from, anyway? I don't think I ever asked you- wait, no, nevermind. Dumb question. Forget that I asked." She sighed, then noticed that Xunie wasn't replying. She craned her neck up again. _Oh, is it working? His eyes are closed. Maybe-_

It didn't take long for her to notice blue rings approaching them, accompanied with orange eyes. She jumped up, and the colors stopped moving. _Wh- what?_ _Is this... an Umbreon? Why are its rings blue?_ She noticed something else entirely: two rings were waving back and forth behind the body of the Umbreon. _Does he… what in the-_

"Have no worries. I am here to help." The strange looking Umbreon spoke with his unusually deep voice. "Apologies for scaring you. And your friend yesterday." Something felt… off.

Still focused on his two tails, she shook her head and looked back into his eyes. "It's… fine." Those orange eyes. They creeped her out, for some reason. It was like they weren't even real.

She looked down at Xunie, his eyes still closed, so he was either concentrating, or fast asleep.

"It seems that your friend is troubled by something. I have attempted to speak to him the day before, but he scurried away before I could do so."

"No wonder, I mean…" She continued whispering, as to not disturb Xunie, "your way of going up to someone in the middle of the night is kinda… creepy, no offense."

The Umbreon continued approaching the two. She wasn't hallucinating: he really had a second tail! It was casually waving around like the first one, as if Umbreon always were supposed to have an extra one. "He was saying that he lost his memories somehow, wasn't he?"

Was he eavesdropping on them? Kori squinted her eyes at him. "Who are you?"

"My name is not important." Standing next to Xunie, he scanned his body. The Umbreon sighed a breath of relief. "Mind if I… take a closer look? It shouldn't take long."

It all happened so quickly, she didn't know what to answer. A random Pokemon, coming out of nowhere, not even Kori knew who he was, and claimed to be able to help with his memories. Right.

"So, wait a second. I appreciate you wanting to help, but... why exactly do you have two-"

"Trust me on this." He interrupted, a serious look in his eyes, "I know how I can help." He then neared his head toward Xunie's.

"Wait, no, I wasn't-" Kori felt that something was wrong, and wanted to get him away from Xunie. She wasn't sure why exactly, but he acted off. Like he was in a hurry, or something. Kori didn't trust him, and apart from coming out of nowhere in the middle of the night, his way of sneaking up on somebody was just one of the reasons she didn't. So, she decided to take a step towards him, and…

...was hindered by an invisible barrier surrounding the Umbreon.

"Huh? Hey!" She started to panic, vines whipping against the forcefield. "What do you think you're doing?!"

A powerful psychic force shut her mouth, and then pushed her onto the ground, face and vines with her. "Mmmm!" She couldn't see what was happening - her vision was blocked by the psychic attack. _Since when could Umbreon do that?!_ The air around her seemed to distort...

"Sorry, but I'm doing the world a favour."

Kori shrieked something along the lines of "What in Arceus' name are you?!"

"Do you have any idea, of who that actually is?" He pointed at the sleeping Shinx. "Your 'human', as he names himself?"

She was struggling against the force pushing her down, but it was too strong. She wasn't listening to what he said, her inner screams drowned out any noise that came from the Umbreon. If it even was one.

"How can you be so stupid and believe his blatant lie? I mean, a human. Come on!"

_Xunie...! _She wasn't listening. Still struggling against tons of pressure on her, she managed to free her face, that she could look at the attacker.

First, a human turned Pokemon, second, a feral Taillow that came back to life, and now a two tailed Umbreon with psychic powers, wanting to kill Xunie. This has been the most bizarre week in her life.

She was powerless. Would he go for her next?

He snickered. "You don't even listen to me, do you? You should be thankful." He looked down at Xunie and readied something from his throat. "Let's make this quick."


	6. Chapter 6

"I see." The Grovyle nodded. "Well, it's safe to say that you are the strangest individual I've ever met. Cino, was it?"

The Minccino—now calm, though more confused than ever—was attempting to explain his situation to the RT member. Although he hoped with all his might that Green might be able to help him, it wasn't looking good. He nodded to the question.

"Cino, we would need a very experienced 'mon for memory loss. We only have two of those, and they're both… at the other side of this region. I'm sure you haven't heard of Frisma Town or Medrose? To get you—or one of them—over here would take weeks with a drifbloon alone… Who's to say that they aren't busy right now?" Green looked at the worried Minccino, his two arms clutching against his torso. "I'm sorry, but we alone can't do anything about this. I don't know the fine details exactly, but I've heard it's an extremely delicate process, and requires a huge amount of concentration for long periods of time. We just don't have someone capable enough."

"So… I'd have to go there to find out what happened to me?"

"I'm afraid so. Or wait until they come back by themselves." Green pressed his lips together, "Which may take a couple of years."

Cino hummed worriedly. "So finding the two it is. Also… what's a drifbloon?"

"A transportation method."

"Oh, so they can bring me to wherever these healers are?"

"Theoretically, yes." Green nodded. "But you have to pay them for letting you use the balloons."

Cino tilted his head. "Pay them?"

Green didn't answer for a couple seconds. "...Yes, with money."

"What's that?"

This time, Green didn't know what to answer to that. Someone asking him what money was? What a preposterous question. He let out a confused chuckle, "...You know," for a moment he thought that wasn't a serious question, but he needed to act professional, and had to act as if nothing was wrong, "Poke, coins, currency. These things." He brought his bag up and grabbed a round, brown coin out of it, and held it with the tips of his claws. The coin had a 'P' with two horizontal lines engraved in the middle, and next to the symbol was a number. 10.

Cino was curious. He had never seen one of these shiny objects in his life. He wondered how much time it took to smith this coin from the mineral it was made from. It looked more orange than yellow, so he thought it was made of…

"You can use copper coins for all kinds of things," Green explained. "It's maybe the most important thing to have on you at all times, next to berries and seeds. Ah, wait, that doesn't…" He held his claws up to his chin, then shook his head. "Nevermind. These coins are very important. That's all you have to know."

"And… how can I get them?"

"Well, there are a lot of ways to get those. Some work better than others, but are harder to accomplish. For example—my, and everyone else working at the RT's jobs—rescuing people from Dungeons, escorting, investigating, practically anything that someone needs help with." He continued explaining how it all worked, and how the 'mon in need can request a 'mission', as Green called it. He showed him something else, a simple looking stone-like oval, with carvings all around it. At the top of it, there was a small bump showing out, looking like you could press it, but Green explained that this was a lamp that would blink when you were in trouble, and everything else about how it worked.

"Wow. This is like a whole new world to me. Everything's… different from what I was used to."

Green didn't know what he meant by that. But before he could continue, the door to the infirmary opened, and a Mienshao peeked in with a puzzled look on her face. She entered the room. "Are you still occupied with him? How long does it take to ask a few simple questions?" Her fur past her paws was trimmed, so they weren't hidden beneath the pink tipped fur they normally had as decoration. That had bothered her to no end.

The Grovyle seemed irritated. "Quie, I know I'm taking my time, but I wanted to get as many answers from him as possible. I… seem to have forgotten how long I was taking."

"That's fine and all, but we still got our missions to do for today. One more came in just now. With how they're accumulating, we have to do one member per mission this time."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know it was so urgent. I'll be right there."

"They came in rapidly, so it's a surprise for all of us." Quie shrugged. "Crede and Soda already left for theirs, and now we have to get going."

"Alright." Green turned to Cino. "You can stay here for the rest of the day. Please wait for one of us to return before you leave this building. We don't want you passing out outside."

Green stood up and with a quick pace, went towards the opened door. They continued talking. "So, you said they went on their own missions? You sure that Soda can handle going alone?"

"I'm sure she can, it's not gonna be that hard. It's the nearest dungeon from here."

"Well, if you say so. Just asking, because she's new, and…" The voices toned down until they were too quiet to be understood, and the room was silent again, with exception of Cino's thoughts.

As minutes of nothing went by, Cino tried to find something to occupy himself with. His tail came to view, it went between his legs, and moved around semi-frequently. For a while, he was staring at the movements he told it to do, seemingly mesmerized at how it could move around. Could he always bend it like that? Or roll it up to a spiral? He had never thought to try it out.

For a second he thought that it had grown longer since he arrived here, but shook the thought off. Minccino tails were relatively big for their small bodies, that much he knew, but… it wasn't longer. Something else was different about it. He couldn't put his paw on it, but he certainly felt like his tail was not a usual Minccino's.

It still _looked_ like one, the bushy hair growing sideways a little, white tip, still a bit wet from the rain. Yet, when he focused on it, it felt like a new limb. But he had always had a tail, so why did it feel so different?

That was it! He could only swish it left and right, and bend it only a little, but now it could bend in every direction. The new movements that he could do with it were surprising him. He managed to wrap it around his body twice before the white tip touched his torso.

"Strange… it feels so strange…" He went through its fur with both his paws. Was it bulkier? He might be imagining it. Out of curiosity, he wrapped it tighter, and it went three times around. His tail was pressing his body together like Ekans trying to suffocate him. Though he felt like he would be able to do one more, but decided against it.

He turned his body and eyed the chair next to him. He went into a sitting position at the edge of the bed, forgot about his back problems for these couple of seconds and hopped down to the ground, making no noise with his soft pads on the tiled floor.

He found out that he could easily lift the wooden chair Green had been sitting on after wrapping his tail around one of its legs. "Wow." Like a snake, his tail crept up the leg and went over the flat part of the chair, and around the backrest. The temptation of testing out its strength was high, but it would've been a bad idea to risk destroying something that didn't belong to him.

The Grovyle said that he should wait for one of them before trying to go outside, but he was curious, and really wanted to try this out. Just a little fresh air wouldn't hurt him, right? Either out the window or the front door, there was nobody here to stop him. Why should he wait? He felt perfectly fine, save for the stiff back.

One option of going out was the window next to his bed. Cino stopped and wondered: what kept the rain out of this building? What was this invisible wall that let light through, but not rain?

He climbed on his bed, and barely reached the windowsill with his tail. Now what? How would he be able to-

His tail lifted him with ease. He flailed for a second after noticing his feet leaving the ground, and landed on his bed again, looking at his furry snake of a tail.

What had happened while he dozed off? What gave his tail such immense strength? It felt alien, but he had had it since he was born… hadn't he?

He tried lifting himself up again, and slowly moved towards the windowsill. For a moment his tail grip wavered, but he managed to hoist himself up so he was staring right at the invisible barrier that stopped every single drop of rain.

His paw touched the barrier. Nothing happened. "Huh… what is that?" He could ask that question all day.

The glass said nothing, had no scent, and made a hollow 'dok' sound when he knocked on it with the tip of his tail. He saw no way of opening it, so supposed it was just there to see the outside while being protected from the weather by some kind of indestructible barrier.

Before he decided to jump down, he tried using his tail to slowly descend to the ground. It could barely reach the ground, just enough for him to get down. He wondered if he could move around like a Sentret.

The door was still open by a crack, so he didn't need to use his tail again. Going through a hallway with a white wallpaper and gray carpeting, he searched for the way out. A little way inwards, there were stairs leading up to the upper floor to his left, a closed door with opaque glass to his right and letters on the wall indicating that further down were this village's RT members offices.

He could see light coming through the glass of the door, but turning the handle revealed it was locked. He sighed, and looked at the stairs. There were no letters telling him what was up there, so his curiosity got the better of him. Nobody except him seemed to be here, so nobody would know he was snooping around.

He reached the second floor through two flights of stairs. The hallway split into two again, but also continued into an area with a tiled floor. It was dark, making it hard to make out anything. "Why is it so dark up here? What is this place?"

There, he saw something big and metallic with two big handles, quietly humming. Next to it was a flat surface with an unrecognisable collection of metallic utensils stuck on the wall. The surface also had two more handles, a red and blue ring on them respectively, as well as a long tube between them. The most bizarre looking was a metallic cube, littered with buttons and knobs. He eyed the humming object. "...What is that thing? Why does it make noise…?"

He used his tail again to open it. Chilly air hit his body, startling him. He saw some see-through plastic boxes with all kinds of berries in them, metal cans, bottles, cartons, and bags, each labeled differently.

Of course, he didn't know what these things were, except for the berries. He rummaged through the fridge for a little bit, examining everything a little closer. The box with the orans looked delicious. They wouldn't notice if one or two berries were missing, right? "Maybe this would've helped me with my burning back?"

After a short struggle he managed to open the box. He took out a cold oran, and-

_**BEEP.**_

Cino jumped back, dropping the box on the ground.

_**BEEP.**_

All of the orans were rolling in different directions.

_**BEEP.**_

He scurried back until he hit the wall next to the hall with the stairs, heart racing. Had it stopped? It wasn't beeping anymore. What was this alarm? Was it meant for him? "Oh Mew, oh Mew… what did I do...?"

Clutching his chest with heavy breaths, he quickly collected every single berry from the ground and put them back into the box—not without thoroughly cleaning them with his tail, of course—and put the box back into the humming machine. He closed the door of it and sighed. He took two steps back and watched the fridge closely. No alarm anymore. "I didn't… I didn't mean it…" he quickly said to the metal object, as if it could understand him, "I was a little hungry, yes, but… I'm sorry!"

All of a sudden, it stopped humming. Cino held his breath until he could no more. "Why did you… stop?" He was too scared to open it again, so he slowly distanced himself to the object. "I'm going now… goodbye." As if expecting an answer, he stopped and listened. Still no humming.

Forgetting everything else that was in this small kitchen, he went into one of the other hallways. It was now so dark that he couldn't see the wall in front of him anymore. The only light in there came from two slits underneath two opposite doors. He thought twice about opening one of them, for what if the alarm came back? Even though he hadn't encountered anyone here , he had a feeling that there was somebody with him, somewhere, hidden in the shadows.

He looked at the dark corners of the hallway, seeing nothing.

"Hello?" A muffled voice from downstairs, barely hearable. Cino froze. Was it one of the RTs? He didn't know what to do. The voice knocked on the glass of the door. "Anyone there?"

Did they hear the alarm? They must have.

A couple seconds passed, then it knocked again, a little harder this time. "Hello?" The voice was still muffled, but perfectly understandable. Cino recognised it from the Dewott that had tried to approach him earlier today. Even if he had wanted to let her in, the door was closed.

"Seriously," she said, much quieter now. "I'm sure I heard something. I thought everyone was gone…" The rest of the sentence was inaudible, but she said something about 'intruder'.

Was he an intruder? He got brought into this building, and was now walking around in it. Did that count?

Cino made sure that the Dewott was truly gone before moving again. First the fridge, and now this. His poor heart was trying to escape his ribs.

Calming down again, he looked at the two doors standing opposite. The left one, after opening it, revealed a… rather messy room with white color for its walls, which were decorated with all kinds of framed objects. Most of them were of different leaves. On the right side was a fuzzy looking bed, and on the left a wooden table with stacked papers, a couple laying on the ground in random spots—most were crumpled and sat next to a bin. In the far corner, a healthy plant that resembled a Grovyle's long head-leaf sat on the windowsill.

Opposite of Cino was another one of those invisible walls, letting light into the room. The window was a tight bit open at the top, and chilly air flowed into the room.

"Do they… live here?" He checked the other room, and found similar things. A white wall, decorated with framed pictures of… webs? Hanging bulbs from the ceiling, a bowl of various berries and… round objects of varying sizes surrounded by a web on another wooden table. What were these for?

Cino reluctantly touched one of them, and it stuck to his paw instantly. "Ahh, ew…" Whatever these were, he didn't care to find out anymore.

At the opposite side of the table was another bed, which seemed like it had been used until recently. It looked comfortable, were it not for the fact that—judging by the rest of this room—a giant bug might have been sleeping on it.

Having had enough of this room, and finally getting rid of the object, it landed on the table with a quiet 'plotch'.

Outside this room, he looked at the other hallway on the floor, thinking that the rest of the doors would lead to other private rooms.

He eyed the fridge again while walking towards the stairs. Oh, how much he wanted to eat something right now. His stomach rumbled at the sight. What would he eat until they came back? They didn't prepare anything, or at least the Grovyle didn't tell him anything about that. Cino would just have to wait it out until someone came back from their mission, as they called them.

As he was descending the stairs, he thought about what kind of 'missions' they were on. The Grovyle told him they were helping others, escorting, and whatnot from those Mystery Dungeons. What even were those? He'd never heard of anything like it.

"Ugh, it feels like I've just woken up in a different world with no memories. Great." He sighed, opening the door of the infirmary he was in. "What am I supposed to do?"

He paced around the room, thinking about something he could do until they returned. His mind was blank.

"There has to be something, right? Something I can remember?" He looked at the landscape on the wall, as if this was the key to unlock his memories. The dream came to mind. It had felt so real! Who was that Torchic in that dream? What did he call him? Tary? Why did he look different from other Torchic? His yellow feathers, and orange tuft on his neck… that's not how they were supposed to look.

...His strength, too. It was abnormal. The Torchic had flung him several metres ahead without any effort. Cino felt the phantom pain when he imagined hitting the tree.

Didn't he also use a water gun on him?

"Yes, this was definitely a dream. No Torchic should be able to do that…"

But still, something was off about him. Cino was certain that they had never met, yet he somehow knew his name. Tary.

A headache was forming the more he thought about this. He wanted to continue, but the mild ache intensified rapidly.

It felt like something was scrambling his brain into a mush. He held his head, only for it to hurt even more when he moved it around.

Suddenly, images flashed in front of his eyes. There was one with that yellow Torchic, another one with other Minccino and Cinccino, various others with what looked like crudely made houses, back to the two Minccino screaming in fear, red, blue. A Cinccino defending itself with a protect barrier, red, blue.

He couldn't take it anymore and screamed. The pain was too much for his body to handle. The pictures dissolved into mere flashes of purple.

It felt like his head would explode at any moment.

The pain vanished all at once. With it, his vision.

—

…

… **n…**

**C… o…**

**Cin… o…**

"Huh?"

He opened his eyes, but it was still pitch black.

"Where am I?"

Something called out to him, but it was too quiet to understand properly.

"Hello…?"

**Do n… wo… y…**

**Th… is your… s… con… ous.**

"My… subconscious? Am I dead?!"

**...No. **The voice got clearer. **I would not let that happen, Cino. **It was right behind him, yet he was unable to turn around.

"Who… what are you?!"

**Is it not of importance. You will be safe. I will make sure of that.**

"Wh- what? Why me? Where were you when I killed my family?"

**I was acting in self-defense.**

"What did you do to my family, you monst-"

Something long went around his head and shut his mouth. **Shhh. You are safe now. They are gone.**

He managed to remove it from his mouth, "You killed them and used me to do- ah! Haaah..."

The voice touched the Minccino's back at four different spots, and pressed on it with a slow, circular motion. **Lay back. Relax. Everything will be fine...**

Cino drifted off into complete relaxation. It was like the stiffness was getting sucked out of his back...

**...I am so sorry.**

—

Cino opened his eyes, scaring an Ariados that had been next to him for some time.

"Oh Mew, oh Mew…" she said, breathing heavily. "Oh, I thought you were gone… I checked your pulse, and… oh, I was so scared."

Cino, who was more confused than terrified, looked around. He was still in the same room. Seeing an Ariados worry about him was… strange. "What?"

"Hey, it's ok… I'm one of the RT here, don't worry…" She looked unsure what to do in this situation, and nervously shifted her legs around, but didn't move. "My name is Soda, and I… found you passed out on the floor, and… put you back on your bed. Can you tell me what happened?"

Still tense, he didn't know how to properly answer that. He was thinking about… something, and got the most intense headache of his life.

"I'm… not sure," Cino said, "I walked around the room, and… yes, I passed out."

"Ok, um, do you know why?"

Cino shook his head. "It just… happened. I don't know… what's wrong with me."

"That's… why we're here to find out," she said, trying to act reassuringly. "Cino was your name, right? Green told me about you."

He nodded, then his stomach protested.

"Oh, you must be hungry. Didn't he prepare anything for you? Hold on," she raised a leg and turned around, "I'll be right back."

She exited the room.

Yet another moment of silence. It was so quiet that he could hear his… heart?

Something wasn't right. It was too quiet. Normally he would be able to hear it quietly thumping in a steady rhythm, but not this time.

Cino slowly put a paw on his torso, where his heart should've been. Instead of the rhythmic beat, he felt…

Nothing. At all.

Maybe he hadn't felt anything because he shuffled around? No, even while perfectly still, it wasn't beating.

He shrieked—how in the name of Arceus was he alive? It was impossible. It couldn't be, he surely had to be dead by now, and this was the afterlife. Yveltal should pick him up any second now, where he would join Giratina in its realm for all eternity.

Soda heard him screaming and came rushing into the room with a bowl of various berries, balanced on one of her legs. "Hey, what's- what's wrong?!"

Cino clutched at his torso. "It… it stopped! I should be dead…! I should be… I…"

Normally, he would be right. But yet, he felt perfectly fine. No pain, no dizziness, no coughing out blood. It's like he never needed a heart in the first place.

His insides felt weird, however. Or maybe he was just hungry.

"Ok, uhm," she quickly put the bowl to the side and approached the Minccino. "Ok, calm down, calm down, everything will be alright, just-"

"Nothing's gonna be alright with me! I should be dead!" He jumped up, accidentally hitting the Ariados with his feet. She jumped back from the unusually strong force. Cino didn't even notice, and held his head with both arms, "I should've been dead since I passed out here, but somehow, I'm still alive! First my burning back, now this! What is wrong with me…?! Just what…"

He slowly looked up and stared at the Ariados, unblinking. "What am I?"

Soda didn't know what to do, they hadn't prepared her for this yet. Maybe this could be a test of finding it out herself? That they could see that she was worthy of this position as an RT member…?

Oh, who was she kidding. This was something not even Green could help her with.

The silence was unbearable. "I… uhm, you're a Minccino, no?"

Cino smiled. "You're not even sure? I thought the same, but now I'm also not sure." He cackled hysterically. "I might as well be a descendant of Giratina. It'll be only a matter of time until I release hell on this planet- ngh..." His vision was faltering, until it was completely black. He tried to fight it, but to no avail, as something else took over. He looked around, looked at his paws, and then at the Ariados.

His tail started elongating ever so slowly.

Soda just wanted to leave this room and get help from her teammates, but they all were busy for at least another hour. "P-please, lay-y down, and… w-we'll find a sol-lution to this…" She was scared for her life. Something wasn't right with this Minccino.

His grin broadened, and Soda could swear she heard something crack. "Oh, Ariados," his voice suddenly went deeper, "there is nothing wrong with me." Another crack. "Nothing at all…"

Soda screamed and frantically stepped back, bumping into the door and closing it. She desperately tried opening it again with a shaky leg, but Cino was faster and with speed and strength that could have broken through the wooden door, held it shut with only his tail, which could reach it from his bed!

The sudden appearance of his elongated tail resulted in Soda shrieking even more.

"Don't think you'll get away that easily."

She started shaking uncontrollably. he thought that finally getting accepted into the RT was a dream come true. With its prestigious image, she'd soon be able to go on proper missions, get proper rewards, maybe even get a little famous later on, and be known as one of the best.

Since she was a Spinarak, she had looked up to everyone in the RT. Saw them as heroes this region needed after those Dungeons started appearing. She had felt more proud and reassured every time someone thanked her for rescuing them from a Dungeon. It was the best feeling she had ever felt. Nothing could come close to the happiness she would emanate after a successful mission.

But now… it had turned into a living nightmare. This Minccino wasn't normal-

Wait! Green had told her that if she found an oddly colored or looking 'mon, that she had to stay as far away from it as possible. And yes, the tail the Minccino had didn't look normal anymore. It split into four where it touched the door, and was missing fur here and there in random spots, most of it had fallen to the floor, and with every slight pulse of it, more fell down.

Wait, pulses? His heart stopped, so how…

...Was it… getting longer?

This had to be a nightmare. It just had to be. Soda didn't believe what she was witnessing. She got ready to defend herself with shaky legs. She hadn't been accepted just because they needed someone. She could prove that she was more than capable of defending herself. This little Minccino wouldn't be too hard to get rid of.

Cino jumped down and walked towards the Ariados. "Relax. I just want to-" she barraged him with multiple string shots. It didn't even take a second until he was fully enveloped in it, except for his tail.

This had temporarily stopped him, but not his tail. She shrieked as the mutated and pulsing tail had grabbed her. Vibrations shot through her body as soon as the tail touched her, dizzying her a little.

With only a couple slashes at the string, he was free again, seemingly unfazed by the effects of it. "Why are you attacking me?" he drawled, "I haven't done anything. I just want to talk."

"Let me go! You freak!" She flailed and stabbed the tails with her legs, to no avail. Where she thought she had pierced the skin of it, no blood came out. She tried a poison jab next, releasing her venom into the tail.

Cino shook his head. "Useless. Try as you might, you won't even make a scratch. You're just wasting your energy." He pressed harder, making her squirm and scream again. "You're weak. Powerless. Inferior to a lifeform like me. Just stop attacking. It's no use. I might accidentally kill you."

What was he saying? Was he completely insane now?

Poison didn't seem to do anything either, so she went back to randomly stabbing the tail.

Cino was right in front of her. She could hear more and more cracks and saw that his torso was pulsing even more than the tail. "What interesting powers you have. Venom. Sharp limbs. Hmm, climbing on walls, too. And-"

She managed to pierce the Minccino's head with her leg. A second one followed, and hit his left eye. Still no blood.

In that moment, she let out a sigh of relief. Finally, she had killed that mutant. It was over. That had to have killed him, right?

To her horror, Cino looked up to her.

"Fool."

She screamed in agony as he pressed even harder, her exoskeleton cracking in some spots, green blood oozing out. "Arg… no! Please… stop!"

Cino pulled her legs out of his skull. He then ripped them from her without any effort, one after the other, resulting in four more screams that decreased in intensity.

Now, she was too weak to properly scream, and decided to just cry and plead. "Please, please, don't… don't kill me… why-…?" Cino let her fall into the small puddle of green ooze and tears underneath her. A yelp escaped her mouth. Her breathing got slower and heavier. "No… please, no… _I'm sorryyyyy_…"

"Just shut up for a bit, will you?"

Cino slammed his right paw—that had deformed into a sharp spear of flesh—into her skull. His arm deformed again, and was now making its way through the Ariados's body. Her exoskeleton was repairing where it had cracked open as if nothing ever happened to her. He sighed, calming down.

"It's a shame, really. I wouldn't've gone so far as to crack you open, but you just had to get aggressive. Hm?" He pulled his arm out as he started seeing her memories and thoughts, "You wish to get stronger, hm? Get accepted into the harder missions your team is going on?" Cino smiled. "Very well. Wish granted."

The Ariados opened her eyes again, shocked after realizing that all her pain had gone away, but then staring at the Minccino with hatred, saying nothing.

He sat down in front of her, leaning on his arm paws. "Hey."

...

"Come on, don't be shy. I just want to talk."

...Still nothing. Cino sighed.

"It's your fault, you know. I can get a little agitated sometimes, especially when someone tries to attack me." He shrugged. "Short temper."

Finally, after ten seconds of silence, Soda spoke with venom in her voice. "What did you do to me?"

"Me? Nothing much, I just planted a part of me in you."

"You-" She would spit her venom on him if it did do anything. "WHAT?!"

"Yeah." Cino shrugged again, and smiled. "As an apology for killing you, ok?"

"Y- you- what- how- no…"

"Let me guess, you wanna know why I didn't just kill you outright?"

"A-are you gonna take cont-trol over me too?!"

"No, silly. I can only do that with this body here. Good choice, Tary. Thanks."

"Wh- who's-"

"Not important. Listen, let's just say I made you nearly unkillable and much stronger. Because that's what you wished for, right? Getting stronger? Being a proper member in here? You're gonna need that. Believe me."

"What- are you Jirachi now? Making wishes come true?"

"Jirachi…? Can it..." Cino shook his head. "No. Anyway, I didn't kill you because your team still needs you, silly. Tell them that I was fine, and let me go when they come back, alright?" He still had the fake smile on his face. "Alright."

Soda was confused. The mutant had killed her, and revived her again. Why? And more importantly, how? She looked over Cino's body, as if the answer was hiding somewhere on it.

"Notice anything… different about you, Ariados?"

"It's Soda. And no. Why should I?"

"Take a closer look at yourself."

Legs missing, several oozing spots of her blood—not anymore. The cracks were gone. A giant gaping hole right under her spike on her forehead. Cino held his paw on the hole and closed it. No pain.

"Don't you wanna get back your legs? They're right there." Cino pointed behind him. "You need them to walk."

"...You're sick. Why are you doing this?"

"Doing what? Helping you? Because I'm _nice._ And you should be thankful."

"How is killing me helping me?"

Cino held his arms behind his back. "That one's on me. I already explained why, you got too aggressive for me. And I countered that. It's as easy as that. Now, get your legs. Or how else do you want to walk around?"

"You're insane. How do you even exist, you... lunatic?"

"Cino's good friend Tary helped me. He's the reason I'm in this body now."

That got a reaction out of Soda. "You're using someone else to be your puppet… how can you be so deranged?"

Cino faked a frown, "Aw, no, how could you say something so mean to someone," his voice got louder, "who basically gave you immortality?" He smiled and waved his body around.

"What if I don't want your stupid immortality?"

"Too bad."

She grumbled. "And what did you do to Cino?!"

"Oh, he's fine." He tapped his head. "He's just, mmh, let's say unconscious. But I promise he's perfectly fine."

Soda couldn't stop coming up with questions and insults, so Cino sighed and grabbed her legs off the floor. He held her right front-leg where it was supposed to be, and told her, "Now, let's take a break from spitting insults and concentrate on this leg here. If you do it right, you'll get a tingly feeling, and that means it's connected again."

She slowly shook her head in disgust. "You… what are you even saying? How in the name of-"

He rammed her leg into her body, causing her to tense and look at her leg, and then at Cino. "Just… do what I say, and you'll be fine. Otherwise… I'll kill you for good and remove the part of me out of you. Now concentrate. You're getting on my nerves."

Soda seemed to do as he said, looking intensely on her inserted limb. How did that not hurt? It was like her whole body was immune to pain. She got even more confused after she had done as he said, and with a snap and a new, yet familiar feeling, she could move her leg again. But it was too deep in her body.

He helped her again and pulled at it until she could move it properly. She didn't know what to say. Her concentration was solely on her leg now, that she didn't notice Cino holding her left one ready for her.

"You can look at it later. Concentrate on the other ones first."

_How can he be so casual about all this? What even is he? What is going on?!_

She did as he said, and with every leg she got, she could connect it faster than the last.

Soda stood up, testing her legs. Looking at them, moving around, turning. She couldn't believe it. How was this possible? How was she able to do that?

"Well, what do you say after someone helped you, RT member?"

She didn't want to say it, but… he had been helping her—as weird as it sounded—get her legs back, after… he pulled them out…

Soda wondered what would've happened if she didn't try to defend herself.

"What about the… blood here?"

"I'll take care of it."

"...Ok… uhm, thanks?"

"You're welcome."


	7. Chapter 7

The sun shone into the dark room through a gap between two curtains. Avian Pokemon from outside chirped their happy melodies, filling the room with sound loud enough to get a reaction from Kori, who turned around in the bed that Cary had given her. The Chikorita liked the bedsheet's flower design, and had thought about getting similar ones for her own bed.

She opened her eyes, rubbing them with a vine. It felt like mid-day. How long were they outside last night?

"Ngh…" Xunie's voice grumbled next to her. Had he had a nightmare again? She looked over, seeing him with his eyes still closed on the guest bed.

"Hey, Xunie," Kori whispered, "something wrong?" She jumped down and went towards him.

"Huh?" He turned to the voice, rubbing his eyes. Confused, he stared at her for a second, before looking at the bed. He looked around, his face filling with more and more confusion.

"Xunie? What's wrong?"

"Who... are you? Where am I?"

Kori was equally as confused now.

"W-why am I a Shinx?!" He shouted as he kicked the sheets off him. His sudden shift in tone made Kori's ears perk up.

"Hey, wait, what-"

"What did you do to me?!" He jumped up and looked at himself. "Wh- how is that possible?"

"Xunie, calm down, it's-"

"My name's not Xunie! I'm Rale!" He cleared his throat with a feverish intensity. "Why's my voice so different?"

Kori didn't know what to say. What was wrong with him this time? "Ok, calm down, we'll-"

The door opened, and a Furret looked inside. "Hey, is everything alright?"

"No!" Xunie and Kori said it at the same time, in different tones.

"Xunie's acting weird…"

"Hey, I said my name was Rale! Tell me what happened right now, or I'll…" He stared at Kori with a fierce stare. "Ngh… why isn't it..."

"Calm down, ...Rale," Kori said, taking a step back from his stare. "Freaking out isn't gonna help anyone here. Let's try to find out what happened to you when you're more calm."

"Calm down? How can I calm down when I turned into a completely different species overnight?!" He showed her his paws, turning them every so often.

"Ok, ok… you said you were human once, right? H-"

"I said WHAT?!" He shouted, baring his teeth. "When did I say that?!"

"Hey!" Cary intervened, "Xunie. Calm down or I'll kick you out of my house."

"Cary…"

He spoke through gritted teeth, "My name is Rale. How many times have I gotta tell you that?"

"So your name is Rale now?" Cary continued, gesturing to Kori to stay quiet for a bit, "Alright, Rale, since you forgot why you were here, let me help: I had allowed you to sleep here because I felt bad for you. You had nowhere to go, and were scared. You two were outside at night, stargazing, and probably fell asleep somewhere along the line.

"And now you're yelling at her, saying that we kidnapped you? That you're not a human? That you 'switched species' all of a sudden? You always were a Shinx, from the day she found you. Just... what is wrong with you?"

Rale was quiet. He wanted to lash out, but what she said was eerily familiar to him. He really had nowhere to go? Were he and Kori outside last night? Was he always a Shinx?

...What even happened last night? He couldn't remember…

"So… what, can nobody explain why I'm suddenly a completely different species?"

"How would we?" said Cary. "We can't do such things. We're not Mew."

Rale looked at the Chikorita. "What... happened last night?"

Cary looked at her too now. "Yes, what actually happened?"

Kori opened her mouth to answer their questions, but it was surprisingly hard for her to think back. "Uh…" It was like last night had never happened, or as if she slept through it as well. "I… don't know. It's so strange, though… I _know_ that we both went outside, Xu- uh, Rale. But… what we did… or what happened… it's blank after that."

"That can't be," Cary said, "you told me that you and Rale went outside to look at the stars yesterday, because it might help him with his amnesia. Or something."

"That's true… but I don't know if we actually went and did that. I just remember that we went outside."

Rale groaned, "Just what is going on? What's with us suddenly forgetting stuff that literally happened last night?"

Kori shrugged, as did Cary.

"Rale," Cary asked, "what species were you before you 'switched'?"

"I was an Umbreon."

—

The rest of Soda's team had returned. They were tired, and out of breath. The Mienshao's fur was ruffled and stained with dirt, as if she had crawled through tunnels for hours on end. The Lucario's ears hung low, and he had a limp. He said it was fine, but the Mienshao insisted on taking a look at it. They went into the infirmary where Cino was not too long ago, and Soda and Green went up the stairs, towards their respective rooms.

"...He was feeling fine, so I let him go."

"Are you completely sure that he was fine? He didn't just tell you that?"

"I'm positive." Soda nodded.

Green grumbled, "Fine, alright. Did his back start to heat up again, or did anything else happen?"

Soda took a second to answer. She shook her head. "Nope. Also, you forgot to prepare something to eat for him. He was starving."

He rolled his eyes, "Right. Of course I forgot something. Had a feeling the entire time. Did you give him something?"

"Mhm. A bowl of berries. Just something quick."

"I see. Good. Well, I'm sure your mission wasn't as exhausting as ours, but if we're lucky, we can rest until tomorrow. You can still check downstairs for-"

"Yeah, I know. Check downstairs for anyone waiting or a new mission on our board. You're telling me every time."

"Yes, because it's important and I don't want you to forget _again_." He sighed. "Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow. I'm gonna… lay down." And with that, he closed his door. Soda did the same.

She eyed her balls of silk sticking to the table. One wasn't where she had put it when she left. _Did… did someone go into my room?_ She moved it back next to the other one. _...There. That's where you're supposed to be._

From above, those three balls of silk resembled a perfectly symmetrical triangle. She always found it satisfying when something looked symmetrical, though she couldn't explain why.

She climbed onto her bed and laid down, legs dangling off of the frame. She kept thinking about that Minccino, and how easily he overwhelmed her. He told her he gave a part of his… 'power' to her. What that meant was still not clear to her, even though Cino had explained it.

It was like something out of a horror movie that even dark types feared to watch. Soda still couldn't believe how this was possible. Who was that Minccino, appearing out of nowhere, having the back of a Typhlosion? Impossible to cool off, even with running cold water and ice attacks. At least that's what Green told her.

It was all so surreal. She felt like she would wake up at any moment, and this was just the most realistic dream she had ever had. But no, this was reality. This was really happening, and it was frightening her to no end. If that Minccino could possess these kinds of… ungodly powers, that he could alter his body to his liking... that begged the question if it really _was_ a Minccino she was talking to, and not a Ditto, or… a Zoroark.

No. It couldn't have been a Zoroark. While it was true that they teased their prey, they wouldn't do… these things. They'd make it so that their food wouldn't realize they were in danger until the very last moment.

Ditto? She scratched her horn. A Ditto would be perfectly capable of doing that… but… were they still around? Ditto were ancient tales from when another lifeform was still walking this earth… the humans. It was told that they created this pink blob for their own use. Said to be a failed attempt at cloning the mother of all poke-kind, Mew.

...Was he Mew? _No, don't be stupid. Nobody even knows if she's still around, or up there with Arceus and the others._ She drew a long sigh. If anyone was gonna find out what he really was, it was her.

**You talking about me?**

"EEK!" She shrieked, and heard a sudden crack nearby while jerking her legs together, but that was the least of her worries. Who was that? That sounded like…

**Ow! My ears!**

"Wh- what?! Cino?!"

**Yes! Who else? Well, not really, but… yes. ?**

"How are you…"

**A part of me is in you. Though too weak to take control, I can still communicate with you.**

"Great… just great…"

Suddenly, her door opened, and on the other end was a grumbly looking Grovyle staring holes into the Ariados.

"Why did you scream? You woke me up."

"Uh… sorry."

He looked at the bed frame. "What? How'd you do that?"

"What?" Soda noticed what he meant. "Oh. Huh?" She hadn't even realized she had broken it.

"Great." He sighed, "We'll try to replace that tomorrow." Green shut the door. Soda laid down, careful not to break anything else.

**Something wrong?**

"Shut up. How did I do that?"

**Do what?**

"You don't see it?" She was glancing at the broken part, tiny splinters dug their way into the mattress.

**What? The piece of wood you're laying on? Come on, there are better ways to sleep. Also, you can talk to me with your thoughts. You don't have to talk out loud.**

"I'm not laying on- I broke my bed! Without even noticing!"

**I told you, you're much stronger now. You have to be careful.**

"Yeah, sure." _Next time I'll break down my door if I lean on it, or better yet, break through the wall while I'm asleep._

**You **_**can**_ **do that, you know. Also-**

_You're not helping!_ She turned around, as if that would block the voice in her head.

**...Also, you might notice one or two things about you that you don't need to do anymore, such as sleep.**

_What?_

**Though, I'm not sure myself. I'm pretty new to this as well.**

_What do you mean, "new"? How can you be new to this kind of stuff?_

**Well… I've never really given a part of me to someone else, is the first. Second, this is my very first body that I can take control of. I've been trapped in that crystal for I don't know how long.**

_You were trapped? In a crystal?_

**Yes,** the voice seemed to take a moment, **someone trapped me in there, I forgot who exactly.**

_That had to have been Arceus. If you're this powerful._

**Arceus? Hm, yes, I think that was him.**

_What even are you? Or what were you, before you got banished into it? And why?_

The voice didn't answer. She wasn't sure where it went, but her head was silent for a minute before she asked again.

**Oh, I didn't hear you the first time. Something blocked our communication. I- **The voice cut off again, and didn't return.

_Hello? ...Hey! Answer me! What are you?!_

—

"I… attacked you? Or rather… me? This body?"

Everyone was confused. Nobody knew what to say, nobody had any idea what was going on.

Kori seemed to have remembered something from last night, "You were the Umbreon with the two tails and blue rings?"

"The what?" Cary asked, raising a brow.

"Y-yeah, that was me. Did I really attack myself? What…"

"I am absolutely sure that there was an Umbreon who tried to kill Xunie. Or… yeah. This body."

"What…" Rale and Cary said.

"But… but that's impossible," Rale objected, "how in the name of Mew am I in this body now, that I tried to destroy for whatever reason? Why was I so… hostile towards him?"

"You also had psychic abilities, right? Or was that some kind of dark energy that you attacked with?"

"What?" Cary repeated.

"Yeah," Rale nodded, "I did have, but now they're gone. It's… so quiet now. Is this how non psychics feel?"

"Not sure what you mean…" Kori said.

"The thing with reading thoughts and seeing brain waves of others, having an all-seeing eye… all gone. It's… unreal how quiet everything is."

"How did you get your psychic power, anyway?"

"I'm not sure what exactly happened, but I had these powers since I hatched. The… two tails, I mean. The psychic power only after I evolved."

"Ohhhh!" Cary exclaimed, suddenly remembering something as well, "Right! I actually heard of you, you were in the news once! 'The Eevee with two tails', they said. I didn't believe it until they actually went there to interview the parents. Goodness, that was such a long time ago."

"I was? Huh. Can't remember that."

"Yeah, and you weren't the only one that looked different. There also was… lemme think, um… an Ekans with two heads, a Poochyena with an extra leg which got removed, and a Combusken with dark-red feathers on its legs and head was sighted once. I think these were all, but I probably missed a couple. They had their own reports that came out at a similar time yours did, Rale."

_I wonder_, Kori thought, _was that Taillow also weird like that? Hm… it looked normal, but… I'm sure it had something going on..._

"Whatever these events were," Cary continued, "they had abruptly stopped. At least I think they did. Haven't watched the news in a couple moons."

Rale stood up from his bed, seemingly enlightened by the small conversation. "When exactly were those reports?"

"Not sure, probably a couple seasons ago? Maybe three years?"

"That can't be, I'm way older than that. Or was."

"How old were you then?"

"I was-" His expression dropped, and his pupils dilated. "Whoa- what's…"

"Uh," Cary tensed, "what's happening?"

Kori stared deeply at the Shinx, "I dunno..."

"It's all hazy, I… I can't see…" Rale stepped back until he was touching the wall, "I can't see anything… I- _**ARGGghh**_-" The two jumped at the sudden scream. Rale clutched his head with both his front legs.

"That did _not _sound like him." Cary was ready to run. "I don't… feel so good…"

Kori agreed. "What's… Cary?"

Rale looked at them both, his eyes pleading for help. But it went nowhere, as he and Cary fell to the ground. Kori frantically looked at them both before falling as well.

—

"Alright, let's test these powers I got."

The sun was over the horizon, a couple stars and the moon were visible. The rain clouds were already far away, leaving only small white clouds scattered over the sky. Soda was behind the RT building in their backyard. Most of the earth was used up and torn apart from the countless training sessions the members had with each other, or against most of the wooden dummies that resembled a bipedal shape. There also was one quadrupedal, but it was barely used. Most of the harder fights they had to do were against partly or fully evolved 'mon, and all of them were bigger than the quadrupedal dummy. They still used it from time to time—mainly for target practice—but not nearly as much as the others.

The only part of their garden that wasn't used for training was around their shed, around the main building, and at the brick wall that surrounded the garden that was built so no attack would accidentally land anywhere outside the garden. But there were still moments where attacks would hit the various colored flowers, much to the Grovyle's dismay.

She took the small dummy. They still had a surplus amount of them stored away in their shed, which only purpose was to hold more dummies, if any would break.

_Let's try Poison Jab first._

She filled her horn with her poison, and ran towards the dummy, kicking up dirt on the way. Her horn managed to pierce through the dummy's head, and got stuck. Not a second later, it fell down to the ground again, the poison eating away at the wood like acid.

"Whoa." Drops of poison dripped on the ground, sizzling away at it too. Soda took a couple steps back. "Uhh…" The smell of her poison was much stronger now, too. She looked at her horn, and it was unharmed. She might as well rename that to Acid Jab.

Luckily, the sizzling stopped, but not the smell. She tried to ignore it and continued with Psychic.

The dummy crumpled up into a ball, rendering it useless. Most of the wood that looked like limbs got torn apart and ripped in half from the attack.

Soda was speechless. She was sure that she didn't need to train anymore. Her attacks were already stronger than all three of her other members combined.

Still, she threw away the broken dummy into their container behind the shed, went into it and replaced it with a quadrupedal that had been reinforced with metal. Wood acted as the skin of it, while the inner parts and limbs were metal, acting as bones.

Not much changed: her Jab went through the wooden part, but got halted when she hit a metal part. Didn't stop the acid from eating through the metal, though.

She continued with Pin Missile, which pierced through the wood, and managed to come out of the other side of the head.

"My goodness."

The pins ultimately got stopped by the brick wall.

_At least it does what it's supposed to. But if I'm not careful I'm gonna destroy that too._

Second to last was Agility. Time seemed to go slower for her surroundings, and faster for her. Normally that was what it _felt_ like, but now it was much more apparent that her body went into overdrive. She was sure that if she wasn't infused with whatever that thing was, her body would have collapsed from it. The backyard was a little small, so she couldn't test it in full. For that tiny moment she was sprinting through the garden, it felt like she was floating over the ground, not even feeling her legs whooshing through the air. She told herself to use it while on the way to a mission.

Waiting for the effect to go away, she wondered what would happen if she used Agility once more. The thought alone was intriguing her to do it, but she wasn't sure what would happen. Or if anything were to happen at all.

**Don't worry. **The voice returned. **Nothing bad will happen.**

_Oh, you're back._

**You sound like you missed me.**

_Totally._

**Just make sure you're in an open area before using it more than once.**

_Why?_

**Trust me. You're going to crash into stuff.**

She snorted. _Fine. What happened, anyway? You were gone for half the day._

**Something hindered us from communicating. I'm still trying to figure out what it was.**

_Where are you, anyway? Did you give Cino back his body at least? How can something block our communic- how are we even talking right now, actually?!_

**Easy there, one question at a time, please. Yes, I gave Cino control again. Although confused, he knows where to go.**

_And where exactly?_

**Towards what I think was the cause for the interruption. I'm not sure what it was exactly, but it gave me a massive headache.**

_Well, I didn't feel anything._

**You didn't? Are you sure?**

_I'm… pretty sure._ Now that she thought back, she did feel a little dizzy when it cut off, but shrugged it off at the time.

**Alright then. To go back to your previous question, I share a telepathic link with myself. Means that I can share my thoughts with myself when I'm far away from my main body.**

_...What? Come again?_

The voice seemed to sigh. **Just… just imagine I'm an invisible psychic creature next to you.**

_Ok- creature?_

**Pokemon. I meant Pokemon.**

The effects of her Agility started to fade, and not long after she was back to her usual speed. Soda realized that she had spoken to the voice just as casual as without her speed boost.

She wordlessly used her Psychic again, only to have similar results as the previous dummy. Only that the metal bending was a fair bit louder than wood snapping. Maybe a little too loud, as the noise stayed in her ears for a second.

It felt like her eyes opened while they already were, like she had invisible eyelids.

**What are you doing?**

_...What was that?_

**Nothing. I just wanted to see what you're doing. **

_So that was it? It felt like my eyes opened again._

**Why are you... bending metal?**

_I'm practicing._

**Practicing metal bending? If you really wanna test your new abilities, you should do so in a secluded area.**

_No, really? I didn't know that. You mean the middle of the street was a bad idea?_

**...Soda. This is nothing to joke about.**

_Oh, sure. Who's gonna stop me?_

The voice didn't answer, but seemed to grumble.

_Thought so._

**You know you're not immortal, right? You can still be killed, although it's much harder to do so. If you're not careful...**

_Whatever._ She threw away the crumpled dummy and made her way back inside the building.

**Listen. There's… something going on here. And to be honest, I think it's even more powerful than me.**

_...What do you mean?_

**I've been feeling it for a while now. Something big is going to happen. Or maybe it already happened?**

_What are you talking about? What's going on?_

The voice was silent.

_Hello? _She grumbled. _Not again..._

..._Why me?_

—

"Hey, Xunie, ready to go?" Kori was waiting for him at the entrance of Cary's home. These last couple of days had been great, considering his circumstances. New body, new creatures, new everything. Nothing too interesting happened, besides their attempts at regaining Xunie's memories, but they had been in vain. Now it was time for Kori to go home again, and to say goodbye to Cary for a bit.

"Ome fecomd," he mumbled, half of the berry juice that Cary prepared for them for breakfast fell down from his maw into the bowl. A lively mixture of Oran, Chesto, Pecha and Sitrus—Kori told him that they were planted and harvested from a nearby berry farm, but the Sitrus were much rarer, as they only grew in a specific environment and climate.

They were the older brothers of the Oran, and would supposedly heal fatal wounds in only a few minutes. The Oran could only do small scratches or bruises in that time.

"You're taking your sweet time there, Xunie. I'll wait outside, if you don't mind." She took her green scarf she recently bought off the clothes rack. Next to it was Xunie's: blue with vertical white stripes. Kori had been nice enough to buy it for him.

He quickly swallowed, "Why aren't you just waiting here?"

"Grass type stuff." Kori said her goodbyes to Cary, who laid her cheek next to Kori's leaf.

"Alright." As he finished, he put the bowl into the sink. Luckily, it wasn't out of reach like most things were for him.

"Don't worry, Xunie." Cary said. "It's what they call photosynthesis. Grass types can get their energy back while just being outside under the sun."

"I know that. She told me already."

"...Well, alright. I hope you enjoyed your stay here. And my berry-mix."

"I sure did. Thank you, Cary, for trusting me and letting me sleep here. I don't know what I would've done if you didn't." A smile formed on his face.

"Oh," she smiled, it looked like she was blushing too, but her fur made it difficult to tell. "I'm sorry I doubted you at first. I thought it was just Kori being naive, but… you kinda proved it yourself, with how you acted, and such. I'm happy you enjoyed it here."

As he made his way to the door, Cary called, "Oh, Xunie?"

She laid her head sideways on his. Xunie was surprised, but didn't resist. "Even though I only met you very recently, I'm gonna miss you," Cary said. Was this the equivalent of a hug for Pokemon? Xunie suddenly felt pleasantly warm. "And I wish you good luck in finding out what happened to you. I can't imagine how it must've felt like, waking up somewhere as something else… I pity you." She raised her head again, eyeing Xunie.

"Oh, don't worry too much, Cary. It's not nearly as bad as it was a couple days ago." He laughed, and picked up his scarf. "I feel much better."

"That's good to hear. Goodbye, Xunie. Be careful in that Dungeon, alright? And take care of Kori for me, will you?" She giggled.

"I will. But I think she'll be the one taking care of me. Goodbye, Cary."

Cary waved as he closed the door behind him.

"Took you long enough, Xunie."

"Yeah, sorry I had to say goodbye," he replied just as sarcastically.

Kori giggled, "No worries. Come." She gestured out of the village. "We should arrive at my home by sundown."

"Where is that, actually?"

"In Amber Village. Not too far from here."

Xunie saw Cary looking through the window, still waving. He and Kori waved back.

…

The landscape was as beautiful as he remembered when they came here. Everything was so green that Kori could hide almost seamlessly in the meadows. Wild creatures jumped and scurried around, some even looking at the two, but not going near them. The wind waved around the grass and rustled the leaves of nearby trees.

"Say, Kori."

"Hm?"

"What about those wild Pokemon? Aren't they just like us?"

"Not exactly. They're still intelligent, but can't talk like us. Of course, they can understand basic commands and language of ours, but their body does the talking for them. Like there," she pointed at a purple furred creature, hissing and standing on two legs, front legs outstretched. In front of it was a purple scaly one with big ears and a horn, baring its beaver-like teeth. "The Rattata and Nidoran are trying to intimidate each other, to see who is the stronger of the two."

"I see… So it's basically the same as what I had back home..." what he presumed was the Rattata kept jerking its body back after the Nidoran tried moving forward. "I don't think it's hard to see which one is better."

"For us, maybe. But they're so focused on their tumult that they don't notice their difference in strength."

Xunie hummed in understanding.

They continued their march, scarves fluttering in the wind. It felt like it was picking up a little, with gray clouds coming towards them. Though they didn't look that intimidating, Xunie still had a weird feeling in his stomach.

Ignoring it for now, they crossed a sign and went left.

To Kori's surprise and Xunie's shock, a green bipedal insect hovered over the gravel path, its scythe-like arms hanging behind it. It had a bag tightly strapped around its neck, so that it wouldn't hinder it from using its wings.

"Wh-what?" Xunie stuttered, intimidated by the insect's scythes.

"Don't worry, that's just Gredia, a Scyther. She's from the RT. I think she's returning from the forest dungeon we went through?"

Xunie sighed a breath of relief. He muttered, "Why does it have literal blades as arms, though...?"

Something else scurried behind her, an avian creature. At least its legs looked like a bird's. Xunie thought he didn't see right—did it have two heads? Kori wasn't fazed, so maybe that was normal.

"Excuse me," the Scyther said, and the two made space for them. Indeed, the bird had two identical looking heads, looking in different directions: one in front, one at Xunie.

He was still staring at the bird wobbling their heads with every step, that he didn't realize that Kori was trying to get his attention.

"Huh? What?"

She giggled again, "Xunie, Doduo are supposed to look like this, don't worry."

"Uh… ok, if you say so, but… it just looks weird."

"There are weirder looking Pokemon, trust me."

After walking a while longer, they finally arrived at the entrance of the Dungeon. They got distracted by some wilds on the way, who seemed oddly interested in Xunie. Maybe he had some leftover berry mix on his snout somewhere? No, Kori would've told him. Then what was it?

And why all of a sudden? The wilds normally made sure to keep their distance from them. First, it was a group of Rattata, carefully approaching the Shinx, sniffing the air around him. Then, a Starly jumping around on the path noticed the two, and looked at Xunie for an uncomfortable amount of time before flying away. He didn't think too much of it, but Kori did. She jokingly called him the 'Wild-Magnet', but Xunie knew that she was very much pondering why they had acted strange.

Nevertheless, nothing came of it, and they weren't hostile. _They're just curious_, thought Kori, _that's all_.

With the Dungeon in front of them, Xunie had gotten more and more nervous with every step he took towards that thing. The purple lights appeared, although very faintly.

"Alright," Kori eyed the fizzles that formed as she went nearer the forest. "Are you ready?"

Xunie laughed nervously, "Yeah…"

"Don't worry, I've got more than enough supplies to last us through two of these. We won't have any problems going through. Now that you're more accustomed to your new body, you're gonna have an easier time." She sighed. "When you first showed up, I wasn't sure if I'd ever be saying that… but I'm glad you're getting better."

Xunie laughed nervously. "Yeah, I am."

She had brought more than enough food, Orans, strange looking seeds, as well as one of those blue orb thingies. She said it was an Escape Orb, but it looked just like the other one he found in there.

Kori held Xunie with a vine, and they entered the Dungeon again.

**Sudowoods S1**

The denser, more humid air entered his nose, bringing familiar smells that he had hoped he wouldn't have to experience again. He blinked and missed it: the trunks formed a wall around them, with hallways to choose from. Branches were intertwining above him, blocking most of the sunlight that had accompanied them for the whole walk.

A whip cracked the air, and he saw that Kori had just slapped a Caterpie into the wall.

Something felt wrong for Xunie, other than that he had to go inside a Dungeon again. Like at any moment, they'd be overrun by ferals.

"Did the Dungeon… change?"

"Yes, it did. The sections are always random every time you go into the-"

"No, yeah, I know that. You told me this. But…" he looked above, and looked terrified. The ceiling was filled with green cocoons. Or was the ceiling _made_ of these cocoons? Weren't those… Pokemon? "Uh…"

She followed Xunie's stare. "Oh." She continued whispering, "We should find the next section. Quick."

"W-why? What's…"

"Those cocoons you see above us are all Metapods. They look ready to hatch at any moment."

"Haven't they already hatched…?" He remembered something about metamorphosis. "Ohh."

"Normally they would've come down and attacked us by now. They won't do that when they're almost evolving into Butterfree."

"Evolving?"

"I'll explain later."

"Of course."

Luckily the ground was made of soil, so they made next to no noise while running.

—

Soda laid in her bed, careful not to break it any further. The full moon glowed brightly in the sky tonight. Her room was dimly lit by it though Soda could've sworn her eyesight had also gotten better since the incident.

The thing that took over Cino hadn't replied for two days now. She still had many questions unanswered, and cursed under her breath that they couldn't be.

Compared to the load of missions from the day Cino arrived here, it had been a quiet night. Not a single mission arrived tonight, and Soda started to get bored. She still had the ability to watch some TV, but nothing interesting would be on after midnight. Only those constant teleshopping programs trying to sell stuff that was just marginally better than anything else anyone could buy at the nearest-

She heard the entrance door opening, and stood up with a sigh of relief, heading to the entrance. She hoped it would be a mission, or anything else she could do in this boring night shift to pass the time.

She carefully opened the opaque-glassed door, revealing a tired looking Meowth. "Hello, how may I help you?" Its posture was a little crooked, making Soda think he was injured. "Do you need help? You look like you..."

The Meowth stared at Soda for an uncomfortable amount of time, saying nothing. Not even blinking. It seemed to scan her, its eyes going over every part of the Ariados's body.

"Is… everything alright?"

The Meowth slowly bared its teeth in a crooked smile, chuckling, "_Is it really you?_" Its voice was rough, like it was about to cough. "_Do you remember me?_"

"...I'm… not sure? No, I don't…"

It frowned. "_You are not… her._"

"What? Are you alright? You might be confusing me with another-"

"_No. She is here… I can feel her inside you._"

"...Huh? Inside me?" _Was he talking about… the thing from Cino? What's going on-_

**SODA. RUN!** The voice was booming inside her head, making her jump back at the intensity.

The Meowth smiled again, "_There she is! She is here after all!_"

"Who…?" _Run? Why?!_

**JUST RUN!**

"_Come here my love..._" The Meowth was getting a little too close to comfort. What was with that thing?

Deciding to ignore the voice's warning, she backed up and closed the door.

The Meowth didn't stop until it was pressing itself against the door.

_What in the name of Mew is going on? What's wrong with that Meowth?_

**Soda, please, for the love of everything, just run! **The voice was pleading.

_Why?! Just tell me why!_

**Just- please! Trust me on this!**

The beige color of the Meowth seemed to spread over half of the opaque glass. It kept murmuring something about "my love..." and "come back...".

_No. Why won't you tell me what's going on with that Meowth? And why were you gone?_

The voice seemed to hesitate. **Please, Soda. Just…**

_Just what? Just tell me-_

The glass suddenly cracked, making Soda shriek. The hinges were squeaking from the weight the Meowth pressed on the door. The wood started to snap.

_What in the…_

Soda was scared. Her heart was- no, it wasn't beating anyway, but she still felt like it was beating faster. Her instincts told her to get away, but she refused to listen.

The door broke from its hinges, and with a loud crash, it fell to the floor. The Meowth, now just a blob at this point, had spread its body over almost the entire door. It was… weeping? Its head reformed, and stared at her. "_Please… I'm sorry…_"

**Soda! **The voice was screaming for her to get away, but she wouldn't listen. Not until it provided her with the answers she wanted. **If it gets you, it's gonna-**

_Shut up!_

**Please… **It sounded desperate.

Soda was watching the Meowth forming into its original body again-it seemingly had no bone structure. The blob continued muttering for her to come back.

The voice finally gave up. **Alright. If you run, I will tell you everything.**

_How can I trust you on that?_

**...You just have to. I promise I will.**

Soda was backing up into the infirmary. The interior of the door was reinforced with metal, and much harder to open from the hall than from the room. She would've liked to lock the door, but if that blob could break through doors, that would help nothing. She got the chair and set the backrest underneath the handle.

_Ok. We have time. Go on, tell me. What are you?_

**That door won't hold him back for long, you know. Just go, and get him away from your members. They won't stand a chance against him.**

_Is that Meowth like you? What in Mew's name is he?_

…

_And what does it mean by love? Does it mean you?_

…**Soda, just...**

The Meowth splattered against the door, bending it slightly. The wooden part snapped already, exposing the metal part of the door to her.

**Just run, please…**

It was much more aggressive now, with every splat the door bending more and more, until one could look inside the room from the hallway. The Meowth squeezed against the opening, coming out the other side as one long fleshy strand of itself. It quickly formed back its respective limbs and head. "_Why are you running from me…?_"

Soda couldn't take it anymore, and tried to attack the thing. With her new strength, she could take it on, right?

**Soda, don't! You'll die!**

_Yeah, sure. A Psychic, and it'll be done. Watch._

The Meowth got pressed into a ball from Soda's attack. "See? Not a prob-"

A sharp, beige colored spear pierced through her head, and through her body. Pain. Excruciating amounts of pain.

The Meowth-ball fell to the ground with a splat, and its body reformed again. "_I'll get you out of there, love..._"

Soda couldn't move, couldn't scream, couldn't do anything. The spear suddenly jerked out of her, and a small orb with red and blue colors that jerked around was at the tip of it. It slowly pulsated, trying to free itself from the Meowth-blob. Soda fell to the ground, eyes gray and devoid of life. The hole in her head started bleeding.

The Meowth stared at the orb, taking deep breaths. "_It… it really is you… oh… how much I missed you, dear..._"

The orb broke the tip of the spear, and grew small wings, fluttering hastily. Any attempt of the Meowth to catch it again was in vain. The orb was much faster. It formed a spike, and crashed through the window, shattering it.

The Meowth ran towards the broken window—ignoring the Ariados's corpse—and stared out the window into the night sky. Broken glass cut through the skin of its legs, but no blood came out. It eyed the orb until it vanished behind some buildings.

"_Why are you running away from me…? What did I ever do for you to hate me so much?_

"_Your only thought of me is hatred, isn't it…? That my only thought is rage. My only purpose is to kill._

"_No. Not anymore. I changed my ways. For you. I'm better now than I ever was. Even if I'm destroying this planet's balance… I will not stop until I find you, even if it costs the life of every living creature here._

"_You are worth more to me than anything else. Please, come back to me. The eons I searched for you were unbearable. Let us be together once more._

"_Where were you all this time, Xylie?"_


End file.
